Registration for nonprofits for Give Local 2025 is open from August 4 to October 13. We encourage nonprofits to register early to allow time for setup on the platform and campaign planning. 

Yes, there is a one-time registration fee* to participate in Give Local. This fee is based on your operating budget size, and nonprofits that register by September 15th receive a discount.

*While the number of nonprofit participants has grown over the years and technology costs have risen, it is still imperative that we keep Give Local as accessible to nonprofits as possible. If your organization cannot pay the registration fee, please email Heidi Oehler (she/her) at Heidi@thecommunityfoundation.com to make other arrangements.

Visit spsgives.org/login to enter your username and password. When you log into the platform, you’ll see your name in the upper right corner. A dropdown menu appears when you click your name. This allows you to access the nonprofits you manage and different parts of your user profile. (Please note, anything listed below your name is a section within your personal user account, not the organization's profile page.) 

Once you click on your organizations name, you will be brought to your organization page and dashboard. On the left side of your screen is your dashboard. You can use the dashboard to toggle between all of the different options to manage your organization. To learn more about various features of the dashboard, head to this explainer page. 

Participating nonprofits will have their own organizational page to share their work with our communities, which will be accessible for donations through the Give Local platform.   Make sure your nonprofit's profile and page are customized with information about your nonprofit and your fundraising campaign. Please make sure your organization page is filled out with your logo, banner image, and any other content you'd like to include prior to the start of early giving on November 4. Donors love to see pages filled out with campaign details! 

There is no magic number for how much time nonprofit participants need to commit to reaching their goals during Give Local. However, we recommend that you have an internal conversation with your team to determine your goals (e.g., Do you have a fundraising goal in mind? Do you want to track new and returning donors? How will you share about Give Local and your organization's page? etc.). We invite you to check out the nonprofit resources available for Give Local and get ready to participate.

No. Each nonprofit can set its fundraising goal, and there is no limit to the amount raised.

The week leading up to Give Local is called "Early Giving." This is a time for all participating nonprofits to reach out directly to their most loyal donors and volunteers to help jumpstart their Give Local campaign. Early Giving for Give Local 2025 will be open from November 3 - 9.

Every dollar your organization raises will be stretched through a $100,000 Bonus Fund generously provided by the Dawkins Charitable Trust. Your nonprofit is automatically eligible to receive a portion of these Bonus Fund dollars as a part of your participation in Give Local.   

The Bonus Fund is a proportional match that increases the value of every dollar your organization is gifted during Give Local. For example, if a nonprofit organization raises 5% of the total amount of money raised during Give Local, that same nonprofit receives 5% of the $100,000 Bonus Fund (0.05 x $100,000 = $5,000).    

Every nonprofit that raises money during Give Local will get some portion of the Bonus Fund. However, no organization will receive more than $7,500 of the Bonus Fund. So, for example, if your organization raises 20% of all the funds raised during Give Local, your match will be capped at $7,500. This "cap" is in place to ensure that all participating nonprofits will get the chance to benefit from the Bonus Fund.   

To ensure fair distribution of the Bonus Fund, only gifts received and reported on your Give Local organization page by November 21 at 11:59 pm qualify for the Bonus Fund proportional match.  This is in place to ensure accurate calculation of the Bonus Funds.  For more details, check out the Give Local Gifts & Bonus Funds Terms.

Community members who make gifts on Give Local Wednesdays (November 12 and November 19) will automatically be entered into a drawing to win $100 for a participating Give Local nonprofit of their choice. 

The Community Foundation of South Puget Sound will announce the winners on their Facebook and Instagram accounts (@tcfsps) and the Give Local homepage by the end of each week. Winners will also receive a follow-up email from the Community Foundation and be given two business days to direct $100 to the participating Give Local nonprofit of their choice. 

Drawing entries are limited to one per person. To be entered, you must make a minimum $5 donation. Donors who choose to donate anonymously will not be entered. 

Please follow our social media accounts (@tcfsps) to join in on the fun! 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tcfsps

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tcfsps/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tcfsps

All transaction fees are covered during Give Local, so your organization will receive 100% of each donation. During checkout, donors are invited to help cover credit card and platform fees. Most donors choose to do so—making their gift go even further. If a donor chooses not to cover the fees, those costs will be fully covered by Give Local sponsors and the Community Foundation. This means nonprofits will not be charged fees, and every donation will be disbursed in full.

The Community Foundation has established guidelines regarding what types of donations can be counted toward your organization’s Give Local totals and what funds qualify for Bonus Fund distributions. We receive thousands of donations for this event, and our goal is for every organization to be treated equally and understand the rules. 

To count toward Give Local totals and Bonus Fund eligibility, donations must be clearly intended by the donor to support your organization’s participation in Give Local.

Date restrictions:

Only donations received between November 3 - November 21 at 11:59 pm will count toward your organization's Give Local totals. Additionally, if they are offline donations, they must meet the following requirements:  

1. Be dated between November 3 – 21
2. Entered in the system through your organization's dashboard by 11:59 pm on November 21

Allowable Donation Types:

The following types of donations can be counted in your Give Local totals. 

• Online donations made through the spsgives.org website. The website accepts payments via credit card.  Payment processing through mobile wallet is not available this year.
• Offline donations: 
  • Cash
  • Checks 

Checks must be received by your organization AND dated between November 3 - 21. Anything under $1,000 is automatically approved. If the gift is over $1,000, we will ask to see a copy of the whole front of the check verify the details, so please keep records!

• Donor Advised Fund (DAF) or Individual Retirement Account (IRA) 

For donors wishing to give through their charitable accounts, we recommend that donors work directly with Community Foundation staff for these more complicated gifts to ensure they are counted towards your giving totals and Bonus funds. For instructions, see more details here

The following types of donations are not allowed to be counted toward your organization’s Give Local totals and will be removed from the system. 

• Online donations from ANY website or credit card processor outside the spsgives.org website, such as via your organization’s website, a Facebook fundraiser, a GoFundMe fundraiser, or donations received through your front office that the donor does not intend for Give Local, etc. 

One of the event's goals is to direct donors to a single online place to give to their favorite nonprofits and search for other nonprofits that may interest them. For this reason, we do not allow online donations to be made outside of the Give Local platform. 

• No In-kind donations
• No Checks dated or received outside of November 3 – 21

Give Local and Mightycause do not support the selling of tickets, auction items, or any other goods or services as a part of this event. The donor cannot receive, nor be promised to receive, any valuable goods or services as a result of a donation to Give Local.

Only if your organization receives an offline donation directly and enters it manually into your Give Local page. 

Here’s how it works:

• Online donations made through the Give Local platform are automatically receipted by Mightycause.
• Offline donations sent directly to the Community Foundation will be receipted by the Community Foundation.
• Offline donations your organization receives are your responsibility to receipt.

No matter how the donation comes in, we always encourage you to thank your donors personally and let them know the impact of their gift.

Cash and check donations can be entered manually as "offline donations" through your organizations dashboard and will count towards your overall total (see instructions in the question below to learn how to enter an offline donation in the system.) However, the check must be both received and dated between November 3 and November 21 and entered entered into your organization’s dashboard before the event ends at 11:59 pm on November 21.

Donors can also direct Qualified Charitable Distributions through the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound towards Give Local for your organization. We must know about donor distributions by no later than 5:00 pm on Friday, November 21 to have the gift counted in your organization's Give Local totals.  Direct any donors interested in giving through a donor advised fund or individual retirement account to this page.

Donations made directly to your organization via cash or check during Give Local (November 3 - November 21) will count toward your organization’s Give Local total as long as they are entered into your organization’s dashboard before the event ends at 11:59 pm on November 21. Donations received before the early giving period begins or after the giving event will not count toward your Give Local totals.  

To enter an offline donation, follow these steps: 

• Login to your profile page at spsgives.org/login
• On the left-hand side of the page, click ‘Reports.’
• Click ‘Offline Donations.’
• Click ‘Add Offline Donation’ in the upper right. 

You will be prompted to add information about the donor and the donation. Please keep copies of the checks received. Community Foundation staff will ask for a copy of any checks of $1,000 or more to verify that the donation was received during the giving period. We will want to see the donor's name, date, amount, and pay-to lines; everything else can be blacked out. This information will need to be emailed to heidi@thecommunityfoundation.com before the giving event ends to count toward your totals. For cash, it's the honor system. 

Please note that a tax receipt will not be sent by the system for offline donations received by your organization. Your organization’s staff team will be responsible for providing one in that case.  

If your organization receives an offline donation (by cash or check), you are responsible for sending the tax receipt to the donor.
If the offline donation is sent directly to the Community Foundation, we will issue the tax receipt.

If you receive a check that does not indicate some kind of restriction (such as to a specific program you are not fundraising for), you are welcome to add it as an offline donation and count it in your Give Local totals. 

Donors are given the option to cover credit card and transaction fees during checkout. These fees are a standard part of processing online donations and are charged by the Give Local platform and payment processors.
When donors choose to cover them, it helps ensure that 100% of their intended gift goes directly to your nonprofit. If a donor opts not to cover the fees, those costs will be fully covered by Give Local sponsors and the Community Foundation—never by your organization.

No, the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound does not receive any portion of the online donations or the related transaction fees. However, the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound will have its own nonprofit organization page, and interested community members can make gifts to us there. 

Donations made to your organization during Give Local, including any bonus funds, will be disbursed directly by the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound. We are finalizing the details of the distribution process for 2025, but you can expect to receive the full amount by December 31, 2025.

Organization admins can find information on all your previous donors by logging into the spsgives.org website here, select your ogranization's name from the dropdown menu under your name at the tope right, then go to the "Reports" tab on the left-hand side of the page. Click on donations, then you can adjust the time period to look at previous years' data. The system only lets you look at one year at a time, but all the info is there. You can learn more about pulling these reports in this Mightycause Support article. 

Organization admins can access a real-time donation report by logging into their user account as described above. , going to their organization page, and clicking the tab "Reports" on the left side of the dashboard. They can set the date filter and download a donation report as a .csv file. 

No, online donations made through spsgives.org will automatically receive a receipt. Your organization can include a custom message that will be included in the tax receipt email sent to donors. However, we do encourage designated charities to send a thank you note to their donors letting them know how awesome they are! 

Please note that if you receive a check and enter it as an offline donation in the system, a tax receipt will not be sent by the system. Your organization will need to provide a tax receipt in this case.

Matches (called matching grants in the Mightycause system) are donations you use as tools to help you fundraise. Your nonprofit asks a donor (for example, a board member, local business or community partner) to provide a grant (large donation) to your nonprofit. Then, your nonprofit leverages that grant as an incentive to donate to your fundraising campaign by promising that donations will be matched up to the amount of the grant. The particulars can vary based on your agreement with the match funder and your fundraising strategy. This can often look like one of the following scenarios:

• For every dollar raised, the match funder (called grantor in Mightycause) will give a dollar up to a certain amount of money.
• Once the nonprofit reaches a certain fundraising milestone (such as $1,000), the match "unlocks" and the matching grant is added to your totals.

A matching donation doesn’t have to be a huge amount. An amount as low as $200 can be compelling to donors visiting your page!

Check out this 3 min. informational video by Mightycause to learn more about how to set up matching grants for your nonprofit or check out this article: Matching Grants on Mightycause. 

You will have the choice to check or uncheck the "include match value in page metrics" box during setup. Here's how this setting works: 

• Checking the box during match setup: This allows match contributions to appear in real-time on your organization’s page. When a donor makes a gift to your page, a matching amount is automatically added to the displayed total. 

Note: while match dollars appear in real-time totals, they are NOT real funds until recorded as either an online or offline gift after your match is complete. See below for more on recording match payments and hiding the match metrics from your page after payment is made (to avoid them appearing twice in your totals). 

• Unchecking the box during match setup: The match will not show in your totals in real time; instead, it will show all at once after the match is met and the match funder pays the match as either an online gift OR the gift is logged as an offline gift.

To ensure your match is counted in your final Give Local totals and Bonus Fund calculations, the pledged match funds must be entered on your organization’s page by 5:00 PM on November 21. This allows us to confirm all match funds are recorded and included before Give Local ends. 

1. Online Payments (Preferred):
   1. Once the match is met, the system will automatically send your match funder an email with a payment link—there is no need to follow up with the funder. The system will then automatically replace any match value metrics with actual donated funds.

2. If Match Funders Prefer to Send a Check:
   1. When setting up the match in the system, use your email address (not the funder's) to avoid sending them the automated email.
   2. After the match is complete, manually record their check as an “Add Offline Gift” in your dashboard.
   3. If you had the "include match value in page metrics" box checked, go back and edit your match - unchecking this box to ensure funds are not appearing twice in your totals.

3. Checks Sent Directly to the Community Foundation:
   1. If a match funder is sending a check directly to the Community Foundation, email Heidi at Heidi@thecommunityfoundation.com.
   2. Let us know once the match is met so we can update your totals manually.

To avoid duplicate totals, follow these instructions if you checked “include match value in page metrics” and your funder's donation is entered outside the online match fulfillment link. 

1. Once the match is complete, go to Fundraising Tools > Matching Grants.
2. Under Past Matches, click the three dots next to the closed match.
3. Select Hide Amount from Page Totals.

A peer-to-peer fundraising page is a personalized fundraising page set up by a donor. The money raised via that page is counted in your organization's overall totals. This is a great tool to engage supporters and potentially get new donors. The fundraising is more personal when it comes from one of your supporters vs. your organization making a cold call or sending a mass email to people you don't know well.

We recommend asking your closest supporters to fundraise on your behalf - ask board members, long-time donors, volunteers, etc.

Send your supporters to your organization's page on spsgives.org. They will see a button under the banner image at the top of the page that says 'Fundraise'. Next, a text box will appear that says 'Create a Fundraise'. Then click 'Get Started' to work on personalizing their page. 

Donors can create their own page from scratch or your organization can set up a template for them to use. The template can include your logo, photos, and sample language. We highly recommend setting up a template AND encouraging your donors to personalize it.

To create your fundraiser template, go to the 'Fundraising Tools' tab on your event or team dashboard. Select 'Fundraiser Templates.' At the top right of this page you will see '+ Create'.  From there you can follow the prompts on the page.  For more details see this support article on 'How to Add a Fundraiser Template to Your Organization Profile Page.'

The quickest way to reset your password is to select the 'Forgot Password?' link from the login page. Once you initiate the process, please look for a password reset link in your email. If you do not see the reset email after a few minutes, please check your junk folders. 

Mightycause provides an extensive online resource center. Watch a webinar, get inspired by a success story, or connect with the support center.

Technical questions? 

Use the grey "?" button in the bottom right corner of your screen to contact Mightycause support or click here to submit a request.

Or email the Mightycause Support team: 

Monday - Friday // 6 am - 3 pm Pacific // support@mightycause.com

We would be happy to answer any additional questions you have as a nonprofit participant regarding Give Local or the Community Foundation.  

Please give our friendly & knowledgeable staff a call at 360.705.3340 or email Heidi Oehler (she/her), Engagement and Initiatives Officer, at heidi@thecommunityfoundation.com. 

Heidi will also be available for drop in office hours for those needing in person support closer to the event.