By Rita Price, The Columbus Dispatch
This year’s Big Give bested the rest.
Donors set a new record, raising a little more than $18 million for central Ohio charities during the 26-hour, online giving rally, the Columbus Foundation announced Wednesday.
The pace was brisk even by Big Give standards.
“We had, in the first hour, donations to more nonprofits than in the entire 2015 Big Give,” said Joyce Ray, associate director of the foundation’s online marketplace, the Giving Store.
The event ran from Tuesday morning until noon Wednesday, with participants making 30,306 donations to 906 nonprofit groups.
Probably few were more pleased than St. Vincent Family Center, which successfully marketed The Big Give with a specific request: The East Side agency told donors it was shooting for $7,000 for a badly needed kitchen project in the residential wing that houses foster children being cared for at St. Vincent.
“We’ve got a beautiful kitchen, but appliances that don’t work,” said Susan Lewis Kaylor, St. Vincent’s president and CEO. “We need commercial-grade appliances. We’ve got the equipment picked out, and we’re just waiting for the final numbers.”