Following 2016 Tech Troubles, Kimbia Expects a Smaller Give Local Day

The nationwide giving day Give Local America will be significantly smaller this year following last year’s technology meltdown that left participants fuming.

On Tuesday, just 12 community foundations will host 24-hour fundraising events for their local nonprofits using the technology provider Kimbia, which launched the event four years ago. That’s about a third of the number who participated last year.

The 2016 event was disrupted because the donation forms were loading slowly or not at all, preventing donors from giving and angering nonprofits, many of which spent months preparing for the event.

Many of the community foundations that got caught in last year’s meltdown have decided to go ahead with giving days again this year, but on separate days. Some are also opting to use other technology providers.

“We wanted to make sure that we were the sole vendor using the technology on the day we were using it,” says Yvonne Maher, senior vice president for development and donor services at the Pittsburgh Foundation. “We were not willing to risk a technology failure again and the trust of the donor relationship we have built over the years.”

Last year, the Pittsburgh Foundation pulled out of Give Local America early and held a makeup day later in the year using a new vendor and experienced no hiccups.

Mixed Results

Officials for Kimbia downplayed the impact of last year’s problems on this year’s reduced participation rate.

“It certainly has evolved a lot in terms of thought over the last few years,” says Lori Finch, Kimbia’s vice president for community giving, “and certainly after last year.”

As for those using other technology platforms, the staff at Kimbia are “super excited that they continue to do giving days,” Ms. Finch said.

The Seattle Foundation has hosted its GiveBig event since 2011, predating Give Local America. Last year the foundation held its event on the same day as the 46 other communities and used Kimbia’s platform for the first time. Despite the technology challenges, the extended two-day event exceeded totals from previous years.

“We used the experience of 2016 to do a full assessment of giving days,” says Mary Grace Roske, vice president for marketing and communications.

After looking at a half dozen other technology options, they opted for CiviCore, a platform she says the local nonprofits have confidence in and that is more cost effective.

And like other community foundations, the Seattle Foundation also used the problems last year as an opportunity to evaluate the financial model of its giving day. Instead of spending $1 million on incentives for charities to raise money, it invested in a training program to encourage individual nonprofits to raise pools of matching funds from major donors. So far, 500 nonprofits have raised matching funds, up from 176 last year. They’ll hold this year’s event on May 10, a date selected based on other events in the community.

The Pittsburgh Foundation is also taking a different approach this year, with a May 23 event that will focus on raising money for about 100 area nonprofits that support critical community needs, including housing, food, transportation, and medical care. A second giving day held later in the year, being organized with Pittsburgh Magazine, will help raise money for a broader base of local charities.

New Days

Some communities that participated in past years moved their giving days to a better date for them, based in part on other planned campaigns. “We’ve always sort of questioned the importance of doing it all on the same day,” Ms. Finch says.

The Community Foundation of St. Joseph County will host Give Local St. Joseph County on May 9 as a way to mark its 25th anniversary and encourage grant making from its donor-advised funds. “We didn’t feel bound to a particular day and time,” says Rose Meissner, the foundation’s president.

It doesn’t hold its giving day every year. The last time it held the event, in 2015, it raised $6.77 million using Kimbia’s platform.

Though local nonprofits weren’t affected by last year’s technology troubles, the foundation did take time to have Kimbia share what it had done to ensure that the problems wouldn’t happen again. “We ended up feeling comfortable with it,” Ms. Meissner says. “I don’t know that anybody can promise absolutely zero risk in this day and age, so you have to use your judgment.”

Giving days can help communities that are new to this type of fundraising, Ms. Finch says. “When we launched it, we saw it as sort of a springboard, a way to get communities to do these events.” Participating as a group helps communities across the country build momentum and collaborate. There are some Kimbia newcomers as well, including the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts’s Valley Gives event, the Frances P. Bunnelle Foundation’s Palmetto Giving Day, and the Community Foundation of Abilene’s Abilene Gives.

Other communities have events planned for later in May and in June.

Careful Vetting

Last year’s challenges spurred conversations about the value of giving days for host communities and the importance of carefully vetting technology platforms. It also prompted Kimbia to take a hard look at its internal processes and put more resources into training its partners on crisis communications and contingency planning.

Kimbia hired a third-party company to complete an independent review of the incident, suggest changes, and check that those changes took place.

Mark Perkins was brought in as the company’s new CEO last August.

While he acknowledges last year’s challenges, he says, “frankly, we want to be defined by how well we responded to those hard lessons learned and by how well we’re supporting our clients today.”

Months after Give Local America 2016, the platform hosted the largest nationwide single-day giving event, North Texas Giving Day, which raised $37 million in 18 hours. Throughout 2016, communities raised more than $130 million through more than 80 events on Kimbia, the staff said.

Getting Reassurances

The Kitsap Community Foundation will hold its fourth Kitsap Great Give on May 2. The foundation’s staff researched other platforms following last year’s event but decided to give it another go with Kimbia. The technology provider’s staff flew out and gave a detailed presentation to nonprofits serving the mainly rural Oregon community. “We got a lot of reassurances from Kimbia that they’ve made some good changes, so I’m hoping we have a great event this year,” says Ani Gatz, who helps manage the giving day. “When it works, it really is one of the best.”

After extending last year’s event by a second day, local charities raised $1.48 million. This year, they’ll be test driving a new peer-to-peer giving feature that allows fundraisers to set up their own page to raise money for a nonprofit. Groups like college foundations, which may support several groups, can now allow donors to raise money for specific programs. And board members or volunteers can compete to see who can raise the most. This year they’re also allowing people to give toward the event in advance of the day itself.

Their goal is to raise more than $1.75 million on Tuesday.