Great Fish Challenge

A new fundraising campaign launched by the Whitefish Community Foundation will keep 32 local nonprofit groups busy this summer.

Called the Great Fish Community Challenge, the new venture kicked off Monday and enables participating nonprofits to earn a matching grant for money raised by each group over the next three months.

The foundation has set aside $150,000 in a Great Fish Fund that will be disbursed on a percentage match. The first $15,000 raised by each nonprofit will be considered in the match pool, according to Whitefish Community Foundation Executive Director Linda Engh-Grady.

While the nonprofit organizations are raising money, the foundation also will work to increase the Great Fish Fund beyond the $150,000 set-aside. Donors who wish to give money toward the matching grant fund can make gifts to the Great Fish Fund.

And for donors wanting to support their favorite nonprofits, the challenge program is designed for one-stop giving.

Donors can make out one check to the Whitefish Community Foundation and designate one or more nonprofits to receive the money.

“They receive one tax receipt and it maximizes that donation through our match program,” Engh-Grady said.

The campaign culminates with a Community Fair and Fish 5K Color Run on Sept. 12 at Depot Park in Whitefish. The challenge ends Sept. 18.

Donors can start making gifts now by sending in an official donor form that will be available throughout the summer at the Whitefish Community Foundation office, local downtown businesses, Whitefish Chamber of Commerce and offices of participating nonprofits.

Online donations also will be accepted at www.greatfishchallenge.org. The website will chart how much money the nonprofits have raised each week of the challenge, and the Whitefish Pilot will publish weekly fundraising totals to keep the campaign momentum going, Engh-Grady said.

The foundation will have a booth at the Tuesday night Whitefish Farmers Market over the next few weeks to promote the Great Fish Community Challenge. Nonprofits will be able to win other types of grants during the three-month fundraising blitz, including weekly $200 sponsored “instant” grants aimed at keeping the momentum going and the local business community involved in the challenge, Engh-Grady said.

Participating nonprofits were selected through an application process. Thirty-five organizations applied and 32 were selected for the challenge campaign.

“They applied in grant program style,” she said.

The Great Fish Community Challenge is patterned after the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s wildly successful and innovative Old Bill’s Fun Run. That event began in 1997 with just over $1 million in donations and a match of nearly $763,000. Last year Old Bill’s Fun Run raised $7.7 million in donations, with a matching grant of $2.7 million for more than 200 nonprofits.

Whitefish’s event won’t be that big, but organizers expect the challenge to expand in coming years.

“We’re hoping we can expand to include a lot more” nonprofit groups, Engh-Grady said.

The Whitefish Community Foundation has been wildly successful in its own right. Last year the foundation awarded roughly $7 million in grants, which included agency and donor-advised grants, designated grants and $363,000 in various foundation grants.

Of that $7 million, more than $500,000 of the contributions went into permanent endowment funds creating sustainable funding for future projects and programs while $165,000 was granted from endowment funds directly benefiting local nonprofit programs, according to the foundation’s annual report.

The foundation will award its next round of grants this fall. A record 91 applications were received for consideration.

For more information about the foundation and Great Fish Community Challenge, visit www.whitefishcommunityfoundation.org or call 863-1781.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.