What organizations are eligible to participate?
Eligible organizations are 501(c)(3) public charities that are in compliance with annual IRS 990 filing requirements. Note that “public charities” do not include private foundations (operating or non-operating).
Eligible organizations must be located in or provide substantial services to Kitsap County and/or immediately surrounding areas (such as Belfair or Gig Harbor). A mailing address in Kitsap County or an immediately-surrounding area will be sufficient evidence that a nonprofit provides “substantial services” in the qualifying geographic area.
For those nonprofit organizations that do not have a mailing address in Kitsap County or an immediately-surrounding area, Kitsap Community Foundation will make a case-by-case determination regarding whether or not the nonprofit provides “substantial services” and qualifies for the Kitsap Great Give. If your nonprofit is not based in Kitsap County, please explain how you qualify to participate in the Kitsap Great Give when registering your nonprofit.
For fiscally sponsored organizations, you must email Mightycause informing them of your sponsorship status at support@mightycause.com. Mightycause will need in writing from your sponsor organization that your organization is being fiscally sponsored by them, along with your sponsor’s EIN#, UBI#, and Charities Registration#, should the organization be required to register for this with the Secretary of State.
An eligible organization may only have one Kitsap Great Give site profile. A nonprofit’s organizational description can be generic or indicate that funds raised through the Kitsap Great Give will be used for one or more specific purposes that fulfill the nonprofit’s exempt purpose.
To be fully eligible, organizations must register by the deadline of midnight on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, and set up their Kitsap Great Give site profile.
What should I expect in the registration process?
Step One. Complete and submit the Registration Form. You'll need the following:
Step Two. Visit your organization's dashboard and complete all the required items on your to-do list to complete your registration requirements. Once you have completed all the requirements, the Foundation team will review your organization's registration. Reviews can take up to two weeks.
Why should my organization participate?
A better question is, "Why wouldn't a nonprofit organization participate?" Participation in the Kitsap Great Give is free. It's a tool, and like any tool, it's as effective as you want to make it. A nonprofit can invest as little or as much time, energy, and resources in promoting the event to its supporters and potential supporters as it wants. The more the nonprofit invests, the more return it will see through the Kitsap Great Give.
Additionally, the Kitsap Great Give is your opportunity to:
What is required for organizations to participate? Is there a fee?
There is no fee for your organization to participate. However, you must register prior to the annual deadline. Your organization is not required to devote any energy to the event. However, your organization will be much more successful if it does spend time and energy promoting the Kitsap Great Give amongst its donors and social networks. The Kitsap Community Foundation will provide a toolkit and training to participating organizations to help them promote the event and raise funds that day.
How much of the donations go to my organization?
Making the Kitsap Great Give possible in our community requires a special web-based technology platform that we contract for annually to accommodate the volume of support generated by thousands of donors giving more than $2 million dollars to hundreds of local nonprofits … in a single day. While we work hard each year to negotiate the lowest possible rates for this service, our contract to secure the proprietary platform does require that all donations (including online and offline) are subject to a service fee of approximately 5-7% to cover the cost of technology services and credit card processing (fees vary based on the type of credit card and payment used).
There is a processing fee of 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction made on the Kitsap Great Gives platform (this fee will increase to 3.6% plus $0.30 for American Express donations and decrease to 1% plus $1.50 for ACH donations, capped at $3.50). In addition, there is a platform fee of 3% for our technology partner Mightycause.
Offline donations received by the Kitsap Community Foundation will have a 5.2% processing fee before being disbursed to the respective nonprofits.
However, the direct impact of this service fee on nonprofit organizations is essentially offset by our community partner sponsors, who, in addition to underwriting other direct expenses of producing the event, also make possible a bonus fund pool to provide a 5% bonus boost for every donation given to our local nonprofits.
Additionally, 93% of donors choose to cover the service fees, so that 100% of their donation goes to the nonprofits they have chosen to support – and the 5% bonus boost funding provided by sponsors becomes a boost in total giving to the nonprofits. If you would like to add an extra measure of support and cover the service fees for your gifts, just make sure the box at the bottom of the transaction is checked.
Thanks to the generous support of the community, we are proud to say that the Kitsap Great Give is not only effective, it is efficient. The overall total “cost to raise a dollar” of the Kitsap Great Give is less than $0.12, far below the national benchmark of $0.50 for other special event fundraising such as galas, auctions, walks/runs/rides, etc. For more information about Kitsap Great Give event expenses, please visit our Sponsors page.
How do the bonus pool and incentive prizes work?
Organizations can receive both bonus pool funds and incentive prizes.
Bonus Pool. Kitsap Community Foundation works to secure sponsorships from community partners to support a “bonus pool” to provide a 5% boost on all gifts made by donors through the Kitsap Great Give (including online and offline gifts via early giving and on our designated “give day” of April 16).
Because the bonus pool is limited and because larger organizations have been shown to have a greater likelihood to receive “major gifts” through the Kitsap Great Give – and thus an advantage in capturing “bonus funds” over smaller organizations – donation amounts (from a single donor to a specific nonprofit) are only matched up to a $5,000 cap.
Gifts that are specific to a nonprofit organization for the purpose of providing them with an organizational-specific challenge match (i.e., Nonprofit Matching Funds) are not eligible for bonus pool funds and/or incentive prizes and should not be processed through the Kitsap Great Give platform, either online or offline.
Bonus pool funds are limited by the amount of actual sponsorship raised. The bonus pool commitment of 5% is estimated on receiving at least $100,000 in sponsorship support to boost $2 million dollars in donor gifts. However, the final boosting gift amount will be calculated pending the overall results of the event.
Incentive Prizes. Additionally, sponsors support prizes offering fun incentive challenges to encourage donor participation and to further benefit nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit organizations are eligible to receive multiple prizes across the prize categories. However, an organization cannot receive more than one prize within a specific prize category (e.g., Golden Tickets). Final prizes are subject to actual prize funds raised and may be adjusted pending total sponsorship support.
For more information, see our Prizes page. For our most up-to-date sponsor list, see our Sponsors page.
How can I help make the day a success for my organization and our community?
The Kitsap Great Give is a Peer-to-Peer campaign, so you will be most successful if you actively promote through your network. We encourage you to visit the nonprofit resource page for the Kitsap Great Give. There you will find the recorded webinars, nonprofit toolkit, timelines, templates, hints, tips, graphics, logos, and tons of things for you to print and publicize your event. If you are not currently on social media, set up accounts for your organization and follow Kitsap Community Foundation’s Facebook page.
Can my organization host a special event?
Yes! We encourage you to plan an event, partner with other participating nonprofits, or connect with a local business to raise awareness about the Kitsap Great Give on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The more you promote your participation in the Kitsap Great Give, the more your organization will benefit.
How does advertising & promotion work?
The Kitsap Great Give has media sponsors who promote the Kitsap Great Give and participating nonprofits. Your organization's logo, profile photos, and content may be used for marketing purposes. If you would like to opt-out of this sharing, please email greatgive@kitsapfoundation.org.
To follow along in the marketing of the Kitsap Great Give, we encourage nonprofits to follow Kitsap Community Foundation’s Facebook page.
Can we encourage donations by giving away prizes or free gifts?
All donations made during the Kitsap Great Give must be 100% tax-deductible, which means that they are free of any “exchange value” as part of the gift. To be fully tax-deductible, the IRS limits the fair market value of any benefits received in connection with the gift to less than 2% of the payment or $50, whichever is less (making only token items allowable, such as bookmarks, calendars, key chains, mugs, posters, tee shirts, etc.). Please follow IRS rules for Quid Pro Quo contributions; more information can be found here.
When will my organization receive its Kitsap Great Give donations?
All nonprofits will have the option to sign up for EFT disbursement to receive their donations by direct deposit. For organizations that are signed up for EFT, donations received online via the platform will be disbursed on a twice-monthly schedule. All donations made on the 1-15th of the month will be disbursed on or around the 25th of the same month, and all donations made from the 16th-end of the month will be disbursed by the 10th of the following month.
Any organization that elects not to sign up for EFT will receive a check sent to the legal address on file in the IRS database on a once-monthly basis (i.e., all donations from April will be sent on or around May 10th). These check disbursements will be subject to a $5 paper check fee.
Donors sending their offline donations for participating nonprofits to the Kitsap Community Foundation will receive a tax receipt from the Foundation. Nonprofits whose offline donations came through the Kitsap Community Foundation will receive a check for the total amount minus a 5.2% processing fee, and those checks will be disbursed around the end of May.
Offline donations, bonus pool funds, and incentive funds will be disbursed on or around May 25th from the Mightycause Charitable Foundation.
What if my nonprofit's expected amount based on the initial Kitsap Great Give results does not match the final disbursement?
Although each nonprofit will see its gifts in real-time, please note that final event reconciliation must be completed. Even though gifts are considered nonrefundable, a donation can be revoked for various reasons, from receipt to the time of disbursement.
Therefore, donation "reports" cannot be regarded as final until the nonprofit receives the disbursement from Mightycause Charitable Foundation.
Final bonus fund amounts and incentive prizes are also pending actual amounts raised from community partner sponsors and may vary from our estimated results.
Does my organization need to send letters for their tax deductions?
Not if the donor is giving through the Kitsap Great Give - they will immediately receive an email confirming the gift receipt from Mightycause Charitable Foundation during the event. Note that all donations must be 100% tax-deductible (no additional benefits). But we would strongly encourage you to acknowledge donations by personally following up with donors and letting them know what you will do with their contributions.
If you have donor giving their offline donation directly to your nonprofit, your organization will be responsible for producing and disbursing the tax receipt to those donors.
What are Nonprofit Matching Funds?
If you have a donor who wants to specifically match Kitsap Great Give donations made to your organization through a challenge gift, you can enter the amount of “Matching Funds” on your profile. If you have $1,000 in matching funds, it will show up on your profile as “$1,000 Donation Matching Available.” If you receive $500 in donations, it will say $500 Donation Matching Available. However, these nonprofit-specific challenge gifts should not be made as a donation through the Kitsap Great Give donation site, as they are not eligible for Kitsap Great Give bonus funds and/or incentive prizes.
If your sponsor for the Matching Fund would like to provide the amount to you as an offline transaction, such as cash or check, please remind them to make it out to your nonprofit and to note that it is for that Matching Fund instead of a regular offline donation.
Will my organization receive donor information for acknowledgments?
Yes. You will have access to donor information via login to KitsapGreatGive.org. If you click on Reports >> donations in your Organization's Dashboard, you will see a complete listing of all donations made to your organization, and you will have the ability to download the entire donation history.
You will be able to view the contact information for all donors to your organization and the amount they donated unless they ask to remain anonymous. Anonymous donations will appear, but the donor’s name will not be listed.
We also encourage you to personally reach out to your donors after the event and thank them for supporting your organization.
How can I find out more information about the Kitsap Great Give?
Visit the nonprofit resource page for webinars, steps to success, important dates, and more. We also suggest reading the General FAQ page to learn more about their experience. However, if you still have questions, please contact the Kitsap Community Foundation at (360) 698-3622.
What if I still have questions about The Kitsap Great Give?
Along with the Kitsap Community Foundation staff, we also have available the Mightycause support staff to assist you with any questions or issues you may have. If you need help, don't hesitate to reach out.
Mightycause Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm Eastern Time (6:00am - 2:00pm Pacific Time)
Email: support@mightycause.com
Phone: (202) 800-1618
Kitsap Community Foundation Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am - 4:00pm Pacific Time
Email: greatgive@kitsapfoundation.org
Phone: (360) 698-3622