Fairfield County’s Giving Day 2018 Event Raises $1.4M

Fairfield county giving day — Stew Leonard”™s Stewie the Duck charity co-founder Kim Leonard, left, Fairfield County Community Foundation President and CEO Juanita James and Community Foundation Board Chairwoman Lizanne Galbreath at the kickoff event for Fairfield County”™s Community Foundation Giving Day 2018 at Chelsea Piers Connecticut in Stamford. Photo by Marilyn Roos

Fairfield County”™s Community Foundation announced that its Giving Day 2018 event on March 1 raised $1,400,887 from 13,137 donors in a 24-hour period.

The first donations came in at two minutes past midnight, with more than $20,000 raised via online donations to the FCGives.org website. This year”™s endeavor saw 415 local nonprofits participating, and the highest fundraising amounts were achieved by Curtain Call ($87,368.50), Wildlife in Crisis ($71,106), Kids Helping Kids ($51,960.09) and LifeBridge Community Services ($38,260).

However, the total for this year”™s event was below last year”™s record-setting $1.46 million from 13,718 donors. Still, Fairfield County”™s Community Foundation President and CEO Juanita James was not complaining.

“We are overjoyed,” James said. “When you can raise over $1 million in 24 hours for area nonprofits, it is a very good day. Members of our community, nonprofit organizations and businesses united, and together, we achieved a significant impact for our nonprofits. For the fifth year, we have witnessed an outpouring of support for the people and places that are served so admirably by our nonprofit sector.”