Amplify Austin a hit with donors
Just before this week’s Amplify Austin fundraising effort was launched, Patsy Woods Martin stopped by to share her thoughts about Austin’s philanthropic culture.
It was a much different visit in tone and content from the one in 2007 when Martin had vowed to reverse Austin’s longstanding philanthropic parsimony. Austinites are famous for their willingness to volunteer time and are plenty free with their advice. Giving money, however, was another story.
In 2007, the Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Austin 48th of the nation’s 50 largest cities in charitable giving, Martin reported then.
Though volunteer work is valuable, nonprofits need cash to deliver services to the people who need them. In 2005, for example, Family Eldercare — an agency that assists seniors with an array of programs — relied on private contributions for 14 percent of its budget. As a percentage, that doesn’t sound like much, but that means $305,000 that had to be raised the hard way.
Times have changed since then as public funding dwin- dles. Family Eldercare and other nonprofits increasingly rely on charitable giving to deliver services. Angela Atwood, CEO of Family Eldercare, said that the organization currently relies on private donations for 16 percent of its $4 million budget. Though Family Eldercare is just one of the nonprofits that benefited from Amplify Austin, an aging population is pushing it toward the spotlight.
When she stopped by this week for an update on the effort to get Austinites to give, Martin smiled as she reported that the city had moved from 48th to 32nd in the publication’s philanthropic rankings. An impressive rise, but still shy of reaching the top half.
The Amplify Austin event was aimed at increasing the momentum. The idea was relatively simple — a sort of one-stop shopping for potential donors to give to the nonprofit of their choice. Like the “I Live Here, I Give Here” concept, Amplify Austin was masterful marketing — no guilt trips, no preaching. Donors visited a website, picked a nonprofit, made a donation and moved along. The 24-hour operation didn’t involve the overhead of staging an event like a banquet or golf tournament and played to the city’s affection for technology and fun.
Given Martin’s success with “I Live Here, I Give Here,” it seemed reasonable to expect that she’d do well. Few, however, could have predicted that Martin would not only hit the $1 million she set for the 24-hour fundraising effort that began at 7 p.m. Monday but would exceed it. Amplify Austin took in $2 million
It was a moment that future historians should note writing about the development of modern Austin. It’s not a Capitol fire or a school desegregation order, but what Amplify Austin has in common with those events is that they test a city’s character. In that sense, Martin’s keen instinct for appealing to the city’s pride literally paid off.
Austin has long provided a nurturing environment for nonprofits. We like them, we cheer them on, we wish them well. But before the “I Live Here, I Give Here” campaign, cash didn’t match the goodwill, and as we’ve noted, nonprofits cannot exist on good intentions alone.
The uptick in giving speaks for itself, and the success of the inaugural Amplify Austin event affirms that the time and research Martin and others put into “I Live Here, I Give Here” works. It works perhaps because Martin stresses that you don’t have to be Rockefeller or Carnegie to be called a philanthropist. There is no qualifying amount to be a philanthropist, Martin noted. All one needs to be considered a philanthropist is to “make a gift in a thoughtful manner.”
Amplify Austin notched $25 contributions along with $25,000 contributions to a variety of organizations that provide needed services in Austin.
Join us in congratulating Martin and all involved in both the “I Live Here, I Give Here” and Amplify Austin for their time and their persistence. “Persistence is critical” to the effort Martin noted. Also critical is Martin’s belief then and now that “we can do better.”
She was right. Atwood, the CEO of Family Eldercare, in discussing Amplify Austin’s success said, “people are already talking about next year.”