On some occasions, our diverse community unites around a common cause. The days after Sept. 11 are one example. The Washington Redskins winning the Super Bowl is another. (Hope springs eternal!) This Wednesday, Nov. 9, is another of those times. On that day, residents of our region will participate in Give to the Max: Greater Washington — the first communitywide online campaign to raise millions of dollars for local nonprofits in a single 24-hour period.
The effort couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. Consider this: In the past year, one Arlington-based nonprofit was forced to turn away 1,460 women and children seeking emergency shelter.
For Trey, a resident of Arlington, the low point came when she was forced to spend the night in her car with her 5-year-old son while waiting to get into a shelter.
“Not knowing where you are going to lay down your head is one thing if it’s just you,” she told us. “It’s entirely different when you have a child.” According to a 2011 report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, children represent an alarming 27 percent of the region’s homeless population, up from the previous year.
Additionally, the Capital Area Food Bank reports more than 641,000 residents of the Washington region are experiencing or at risk of hunger, including more than 100,000 in Fairfax County alone.
This is the same Fairfax County that ranks second nationally for highest median household income and yet is facing the same challenges as the rest of the region and the country.
Across the river, one in four homeowners living in Prince George’s County are behind in their mortgage payments. The situation is so dire that housing counselors who work with homeowners recently participated in a suicide-prevention training to deal with the most distraught homeowners.
With 66,000 foreclosure notices in Maryland earlier this year, counselors are bracing for an even bigger flood. These dire needs can be placed against a backdrop of big cuts in federal and local funding and decisions by Fannie Mae and the Freddie Mac Foundation to wind down or substantially scale back the support on which many nonprofit groups have depended.
Human services organizations are not alone. Groups devoted to education, job training, the environment, animals rights, the arts and more are all feeling squeezed.
Within the arts community, the Master Chorale of Washington closed its doors after serving this region for 43 years. This past June, a local dance organization announced it could no longer support its professional dance company.
“Clearly these are challenging times for arts organizations and all nonprofits,” Cultural Alliance President Jennifer Cover Payne told us. At the same time, she was quick to point out that the arts are even more important as families in our region face stressful times.
Whether you choose to support the arts, help shelter a homeless family, clean up the Anacostia River, empower people out of poverty into living wage careers or lift up the community in some other way, please join your neighbors Nov. 9 by visiting the Give to the Max website (www.give2max.org).
Using a web-based approach pioneered by our partner, Razoo, Give to the Max helps nonprofit organizations of all sizes reach new donors, increases giving through fun incentives and significantly reduces overall fundraising costs.
A similar effort in Minnesota raised $24 million in two days and inspired waves of new donors. Best of all, the campaign will give local nonprofits a much-needed extra boost going into the holiday season.
Give to the Max Day gives the entire community the opportunity to make a statement about the importance of nonprofits to our individual and collective lives.
Like an old-fashioned barn raising, we can all work together to show the power of community. In the words of Jim Dinegar, president and CEO of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, people don’t give because our region is great, our region is great because people give.
Terri Lee Freeman is president of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region and Bill Hanbury is president and chief executive officer of United Way of the National Capital Area.
