5th Annual San Angelo Gives Event Tops $2 Million in Local Charity Donations

SAN ANGELO, TX — The San Angelo Area Foundation exceeded all forecasts in the 2019 San Angelo Gives event Tuesday, May 7. According to Foundation VP Janet Karcher, this year’s $2,204,473 in donations was the first time breaking the $2 million mark.

In planning for the event, Karcher said the Foundation’s team of six executives made a modest goal this year of $1.85 million. That was only $150,000 higher than 2018’s total donations.

San Angelo Gives is an annual online donation drive for the Foundation.

Think of the Area Foundation as a financial brokerage firm for Concho Valley area non-profit organizations. They serve as a third party professional management team for a local non-profit organization to manage their investments, primarily endowments. The more money the Foundation has under its management, the more leverage it has in world financial markets to enhance income from the financial assets in each individual non-profit organization’s account. The Foundation’s annual San Angelo Gives not only provides more capital to grow individual non-profit endowments, but in some cases, it provides much needed operating cash flow for its member organizations.

Formed in 2002, the Foundation has nearly $200 million under its management today.

For each San Angelo Gives event, Foundation staff solicits donations from area businesses and individual donors to “amplify” the amount of money raised. Karcher said its not “matching” funds, because some gifts are aimed at certain segments or for certain prizes throughout the day.

In addition, the Foundation added their own prize to donate and additional $1,000 to 20 selected non-profits if the total giving for San Angelo Gives exceeded $2 million.

“We had the same $2 million ‘stretch’ challenge last year,” Karcher said. “This year we made the goal and gave it.”

The top organizations receiving money this year were mostly Christian-based outreach non-profits like House of Faith and Christian private schools. Cornerstone Christian School led the pack yesterday, attracting $116,500 in individual donations. Angelo Catholic School raised $81,200. The numbers on the leaderboard no not include the “amplification” funds, though the total amount raised, the $2.2 million, does, Karcher said. Amplification funds will be added in the days to follow.

San Angelo Gives was inaugurated in 2015 where the event raised $787,000. In 2016, the event broke the $1 million mark. It grew to $1.4 million in 2017, and in 2018 it topped $1.7 million.

Karcher said the growth in the amount of giving is correlated to the number of participants. This year there were 7,500 donations. The sizes of the donations are smaller as more donors become aware of the event and participate, Karcher said.

San Angelo Gives used a different technology platform this year. CiviCore was contracted to provide the website, payment gateway, and JSON feeds needed to promote the giving. Karcher attributes the website’s ability to showcase each individual charity’s mission, purpose, and outreach on separate tabs located on individual landing pages for each organization as a key reason donations were up.

“People were able to get a better understanding of the non-profit they were giving to,” Karcher said.

The Foundation wanted to recognize these San Angelo area businesses for adding money to the campaign with amplification funds (in no particular order):

• Armstrong Backus & Co. LLP
• Snider Technology
• The Bailey Law Firm
• AEP Texas
• Tres Amigos
• West Central Wireless
• 1st Community Federal Credit Union
• Templeton Law Firm
• The Bank and Trust
• Oliver Rainey & Wojtek, LLP
• TimeClock Plus
• Eckert & Company
• Chilton, Wilcox & Fortenberry of San Angelo
• The JL Bar Ranch Resort & Spa
• Angelo Chiropractic
• Sonora Bank
• Texas Bank
• The First National Bank of Sterling City