The Kitsap Great Give is a 24-hour “give-day” event that unites our community through a single online donation platform to support the many nonprofit organizations that make Kitsap a great place to live – for all of us. 

In 2024, the Kitsap Great Give generated $1.47 million from 3,158 donors through 6,844 gifts to support 363 local nonprofit organizations; adding to the more than $17 million invested in our community since it was created in 2014.

The Kitsap Community Foundation contracts with Mightycause for annual use of their proprietary technology platform-specific to “give day” events and are capable of accommodating the volume of support that is generated by thousands of donors giving millions of dollars to hundreds of local nonprofits in a single day. 

For 24 hours on Tuesday, March 11, you can review the profiles of more than 350 local nonprofit organizations that have registered to participate in the Kitsap Great Give and make donations to as many of them as you would like. The Kitsap Great Give website allows donors the ability to search by name, category, or scroll a list of nonprofits on the leaderboard that can be sorted by alpha, number of donations, or total raised! 

While nonprofit organizations do have to register to take part in the event (so that we can ensure their eligibility), there is no cost for them to participate.  

While we encourage individuals to give to their favorite organizations year-round, the Kitsap Great Give is a special event presented by the Kitsap Community Foundation and the United Way of Kitsap County to ignite an annual “community movement of generosity” that celebrates and supports our community’s diverse sector of nonprofit organizations – and the many dedicated staff and volunteers who tirelessly serve the greater good of our community and, in doing so, benefit us all. 

The Kitsap Great Give illustrates the collective impact when everyone gets involved. Since 2014, thousands of donors have invested in our community, contributing more than $17 million in support for local nonprofits. Through the Kitsap Great Give, every donor matters, and every gift makes a difference. 

Additionally, sponsors (our first donors in!) amplify donor support. Not only do they help to make the event possible by underwriting the event expenses, but they also provide funds to support a 5% bonus boost gift for all early giving and day-of gifts made by donors, as well as support for the prize pool offering fun incentive challenges to encourage donor participation and to further benefit nonprofit organizations. 

As a community event, the Kitsap Great Give is bigger than any one nonprofit. On average, donors give to 2.64 organizations through this special “give day.” More than 60 percent of donors report that their gifts through the Kitsap Great Give are in addition to their regular annual giving, and many donors (14 percent) make a first-time gift to a new organization, one they haven’t supported before and didn't know about until the Kitsap Great Give. For many nonprofit organizations, support through the Kitsap Great Give enables them to easily access additional mission-critical funding.  

Early giving is a chance to make your donation before the actual designated community “give day” on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Early giving opens on March 1 and ends on March 10 at midnight. If you choose to make an early gift through Kitsap Great Give's web portal, your credit card will be charged immediately, and you will receive a donation receipt right away. While the website’s public leaderboard will not populate until March 11, the nonprofit(s) you support will be able to see your early donations. All donations made between March 1-11 are eligible for the 5% bonus boost funds, as well as select prizes (see Prizes page for more information).

Anyone can make a donation to a nonprofit that has a profile on www.KitsapGreatGive.org starting on Saturday, March 1, 2025. You do not have to have a Kitsap Community Foundation account or live in the Kitsap area to donate.

There are multiple ways you can make a gift to the Kitsap Great Give on Tuesday, March 11, 2025 (or via “Early Giving” that starts March 1 and ends March 10 at midnight):

• Credit and Debit cards, including Visa, Master Card, Discover, and American Express
• PayPal and Venmo
• Apple Pay
• Transfers of stocks or securities and electronic transfers can be made to the Kitsap Community Foundation with the designated nonprofits named, and you can find further instructions by clicking here
• Make a gift by check by returning our reply envelope included in the Kitsap Great Give direct mail appeal or our reply device clipped from the special supplement provided by Sound Publishing to the Bainbridge Island Review, North Kitsap Herald, Central Kitsap Reporter, and Port Orchard Independent and mailing it to the Kitsap Community Foundation

Gifts made through the Kitsap Great Give website are safe and secure. The Mightycause team has developed highly scalable platforms used around the country for giving events. The Mightycause Platform does not store credit card information in its database, nor does the Kitsap Community Foundation. Neither organization shares or sell donors’ private information, with the exception of making it specifically available to the organizations that were designated by donors to receive their gifts and the host Foundation (unless they choose to remain anonymous). Credit or debit card information is not provided to the recipient organizations. Additionally, donors supporting the Kitsap Great Give are maintained separately from the Foundation’s own proprietary donor management system, and their information is not imported for future general use.

The minimum donation amount is $10. There is no maximum donation amount. However, the sponsored bonus fund pool providing an additional 5% boost bonus on all gifts is limited and will be applied only up to $5,000 of any gift(s) to a single nonprofit organization made by a donor. 

YES! You may make donations to as many participating organizations as you'd like in a single transaction. When making your donations, click "Add to Cart" and then continue browsing. Once you've completed your shopping cart, you can chose to check-out by entering your payment information and clicking submit one time for all your intended donations. 

Donations made through the Kitsap Great Give are 100% tax-deductible. You will immediately receive an email from the Mightycause Charitable Foundation confirming that the gift(s) have been made and that they are fully tax-deductible. Please save this email for your records.

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. You can choose to cover this fee so that it is not deducted from your intended donation. Generally, over 80% of donors choose to cover this fee for nonprofits. Nonprofits greatly appreciate your additional support!

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 $1 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 service fees to cover the cost of technology services and credit card processing. 

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% boost for every donation given to our local nonprofits. 

Additionally, many donors do 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 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.

Like all participating nonprofit organizations, the Kitsap Community Foundation hopes to benefit directly from donors who value its work and demonstrate their commitment by making “give day” gifts in specific support of the Foundation to amplify its impact in the community. 

However, the Kitsap Great Give is also a special community fundraising event produced by the Kitsap Community Foundation that has generated more than $2 million in annual support for local nonprofit organizations. Like any special event, there are direct expenses incurred by the Foundation to produce the event, which the Foundation seeks to offset through community partner sponsorship support. However, the considerable time and expertise dedicated by Foundation staff to support the Kitsap Great Give is considered a service for the community and is not compensated by event sponsors. Likewise, the Foundation chooses not to benefit from any bonus funds and/or incentive prizes specific to gifts made to the Foundation through the Kitsap Great Give. 

"Offline" donations can be made by check, but they must be made payable to Kitsap Community Foundation, include a clear indication of which nonprofit(s) the donation is for, and be received in our office by Tuesday, March 11. Offline donations will be directed to the designated nonprofit organization(s) of the donor's choice, minus the 5.2% service fee (same as the "give day" technology platform). The minimum donation for offline donations is $10. Offline donations processed by the Kitsap Community Foundation are included in determining the 5% bonus boost funds an organization receives but are ineligible for the Kitsap Great Give prize incentives (please see the Prizes page for more info).

For offline donations made by the transfer of stocks or securities and electronic transfers, click here for instructions.

This is our mailing address: Kitsap Community Foundation / PO Box 3670 / Silverdale, WA 98383

For any offline donations you would like to drop off in-person, you can stop by our office at 9657 Levin Rd. NW, Ste. 220, Silverdale, WA 98383.

Yes. Our technology provider has a "mobile optimized platform" that will make it easy to make a gift on kitsapgreatgive.org using your smartphone, tablet, or other mobile devices.

Nonprofit organizations located in or provide substantial services in Kitsap County or immediately-surrounding areas (Belfair, Gig Harbor) are encouraged to participate. To be eligible, organizations must be 501(c)(3) public charities in compliance with IRS 990 requirements (Kitsap Community Foundation will verify), and all will have registered and received training on how to participate in the Kitsap Great Give.

While the Kitsap Great Give is free to any and all qualified nonprofit organizations to participate, they must annually register (by January 21) to participate via the KitsapGreatGive.org website. If you don’t see a particular organization, it is either because they didn’t register or they didn’t qualify for eligibility to participate.

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% match on online gifts made by donors and offline gifts processed only by the Kitsap Community Foundation through the Kitsap Great Give during early giving and on our designated “give day” of March 11.

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 to receive at least $100,000 in sponsorship support to match $1.5 million dollars in donor gifts. However, the final matching 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.

Spread the word! After you have made your donation(s), you can encourage others to participate by sharing the Kitsap Great Give challenge among your personal network, including social/civic groups, at work, and/or online. 

Many of the participating nonprofits are on social media, and their profile pages will include links to their respective sites. Check out the "Share Page" option on each profile that permits you to share their page on the network of your choosing. 

There are also many Facebook events (hosted through numerous participating nonprofits) you can join, "attend," and share with your friends.

If you are super committed to a nonprofit in our community, you can start a peer-to-peer fundraiser page to raise funds on their behalf. Just visit the organization's profile and click "Fundraise" to get started.

You will also have the option to set up monthly recurring donations, providing steady support to help nonprofits year-round.

Yes, but donations using a Kitsap Community Foundation donor-advised fund (or a DAF not housed at Kitsap Community Foundation) must be submitted by Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Donations made via an internal transfer using a Kitsap Community Foundation donor-advised fund will not be subject to the service fees. Please contact Program Associate Lillian Xie at lillian@kitsapfoundation.org or (360) 698-3622 for support.

You will receive an immediate thank you and your tax receipt from the Mightycause Charitable Foundation. Your receipt will indicate which nonprofit organization(s) your donation(s) will be directed toward. Please save these receipts for your records in support of your annual tax filing. 

Unless you choose to make your gifts “anonymous,” we provide each nonprofit organization with donor names, addresses, and gift amounts related to the gifts they receive via the Kitsap Great Give. They may follow up to thank you as well to let you know how your donation will make a difference. However, we do not provide them with your credit or debit card information.

There is no direct cost to donors to participate in the Kitsap Great Give event. Every donor will receive an immediate thank you and tax receipt for 100% of your donation.

The service fees noted above for technology services and credit card processing are withheld disbursements before they are sent to nonprofit organizations. However, our sponsor-supported bonus pool providing a 5% boost to all gifts and incentive prizes are expected to offset the service fees to nonprofits. 

Additionally, you may elect to pay the service fees associated with your gift on behalf of the organization, if you wish.

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

Kitsap Community Foundation Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am - 4:00pm Pacific Time
Email: greatgive@kitsapfoundation.org
Phone: (360) 698-3622