Giving day for local organizations to be hosted on May 9, 2019

Following a meeting with representatives from the Community Foundation of Acadiana, an orientation meeting was held Tuesday at The Hatchery to discuss ways non-profit organizations, churches, and schools from Evangeline Parish can raise money through the second annual South Louisiana Giving Day set for Tuesday, May 9.
Project manager Lauren Breaux Coffin went over some statistics from last year’s event including “134 organizations registered and participating, almost $1.1 million in total donations, $534,000.00 in match donations received, over 1,700 total distributions received, and $32,000.00 in prize money distributed to participating organizations.”
She added donations came from 29 states as well one from Nova Scotia. “It just goes to show this event is really unlimited from a geographical perspective,” Coffin said. “You may have connections to donors all over the country who are not able to buy an event ticket because they’re not able to come into town an attend that event.”
“But,” she continued, “they could make a donation to you from their computer, smart phone, or tablet while sitting in the comfort of their home or getting in an elevator while going to work.”
The registration process, according to Coffin, begins with organizations creating “profiles that live on the South Louisiana Giving Day website.”
She added, “Donors can search for profiles by organization alphabetically or by parish. They can essentially click on Evangeline Parish and see all the organizations from the parish that are participating.”
Coffin then outlined the rest of the registration process step-by-step and went over the fees associated with donating to organizations that are seven percent for online giving fees or two percent fees for offline donations.
“At checkout,” she said, “the donor can click on a box that allows them to cover the fees.”
Farrah Reyna then discussed marketing opportunities for the organizations that participate. She stated there is a marketing tool kit on the website that includes templates for emails and newsletters.
“These are Word documents where we have filled out the content and have everything somebody needs to know about Giving Day,” Reyna said, “and we left some space on these documents in highlighted areas where you need to input your organization’s information.”
Reyna then went over most important aspect of the marketing tool kit that deals with social media posts. As she said, “We’re created content which has been typed for you and which has a graphic or a picture with it that you can attach. They have all been formatted to fit each social media platform.”
Once registration ends, Reyna will send out weekly email reminders with social media posts. “All you have to do is copy and paste the content and download the image attached,” she said.
Registration for Giving Day is currently running through March 1, and donors are able to make scheduled donations beginning March 11. The website is www.southlouisianagivingday.org.