There are almost 120,000 people living in Missoula County, and many of them are very generous to the area’s nonprofit agencies and corporations.

Case in point.

From Thursday evening through Friday evening, just over 3,800 individuals donated almost $1.1 million to nonprofits through ‘Missoula Gives.’

Marcy Allen, Executive Director of the Missoula Community Foundation made the announcement to KGVO News late Friday.

“We set a really ambitious goal this year and I felt like the nonprofit community really needed us to increase the amount raised and they were really looking for support, especially after this past year and because they've done so much for our community,” said Allen. “As we started out the day we crept up to four o'clock, I think maybe on Friday afternoon, and we started to approach that million dollar mark, which was really exciting. We closed out donations at 7:00 p.m. and we were at $1.1 million.”

Allen was still computing the average giving per donor when she spoke to KGVO.

“I don't know what the average was because I haven't done those calculations yet, but we did have 3,876 donors and every single organization that was participating did get a donation, so that's always really exciting as well,” she said.

Allen said that after doing the math on the total amount being donated by fewer than 4,000 people, that the capacity for the Missoula and Bitterroot valleys to give to the area’s nonprofits is huge.

“We increased our donations last year by $400,000, and then again this year by $300, 000,” she said. “I hope we continue to rise, especially as more people move here. There were 3,800 donors this year and we have over, including the Bitterroot Valley over 160,000 people living here, so I think we have the potential to continue to grow our community of givers, which really make our place special.”

There were 163 nonprofit organizations that participated in this year’s Missoula Gives campaign.

 

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