It’s that time of year for the annual Mohawk Valley Gives campaign!

You’ve probably seen what has become a common sign of the season.

Decorative yard signs in front of homes, businesses, and nonprofit locations all mentioning Mohawk Valley Gives and September 20th. And don’t forget the billboards. Similar messages are popping up and billboards throughout Herkimer and Oneida Counties. And if it’s a digital billboard – just wait, Mohawk Valley Gives and the reminder for September 20th will soon appear. All this means just one thing – It is that time of year for the annual Mohawk Valley Gives campaign!

We recently had a conversation with Kayla Ellis of the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties. Kayla is the Program Manager for the Mohawk Valley Gives annual fundraising campaign and she shared some background and details about this annual program supporting local community nonprofits in the region.

What is Mohawk Valley Gives?

Essentially Mohawk Valley Gives is an online giving day when individuals and organizations can directly support local charities doing great work in our communities. This Mohawk Valley Gives campaign is different from Giving Tuesday. Mohawk Valley Gives only focuses on the nonprofits in our communities right here the Mohawk Valley!

The nature of the event is to simplify giving and supporting your favorite local nonprofit. You can go to one location at Givemv.org as an individual or an organization and view from a catalog of nonprofits (over 300!), and here you can support more than one charity! The minimum donation is $5 and every donation counts!

And donor’s donations can go a long way. Many nonprofits have matches that can increase a donation either double or sometimes triple the amount. So if you donate $50, and with matches from other organization, your impact can be $100 or more!

How did Mohawk Valley Gives get started?

Mohawk Valley Gives started in 2022 by the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties. The timing was right off of the pandemic when there was still a lot of hesitancy in the community to attend in-person events. Generally, folks were still reluctant to attend events with many people, but they wanted to help nonprofits with their fundraising. At that same time, it was the Community Foundation’s 70th anniversary and we wanted a significant initiative to help celebrate that milestone.

The first year of Mohawk Valley Gives there were 137 nonprofits that participated and they raised over $630,000 In 2023 our second year, the number of organizations increased to 255 nonprofits participating and they raised $2.4M. This was the result from donations along with several different matches and challenges. UpMobility Foundation put up a $1M match in 2023, and in 2024 came onboard as a program sponsor for this year’s campaign. Mohawk Valley Gives is really gaining recognition and it’s something folks in the community, along with the local nonprofits, look forward to each year.

The day is about so much more than just raising money, it’s about giving nonprofit organizations the opportunity to promote themselves in new and creative ways and gain new supporters while they’re at it. It’s also an educational opportunity for community donors to learn about many amazing organizations that they may not be familiar with. – Kayla Ellis, Business Communications Manager at the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

How can people get involved to support their favorite local charities?

Part of what makes Mohawk Valley Gives unique is that it is an easy way of inviting the whole community to dip their toes into giving with a low barrier of entry.
The website, GiveMV.org makes so easy for folks to join in, and there are more than 320 nonprofit organizations participating in this year’s campaign.

While viewing the online catalog, donors can add more than one charity to the shopping cart before checking out. This makes it easy for donors to support multiple charities yet only make a one total sum donation. Each designated amount will go to the charity the donor chose. Once the donation is complete, the donor will immediately receive an email receipt for their donations for each charity they supported.

We have seen Mohawk Valley Gives yard signs practically everywhere, how did they get put up in so many places so quickly?

We love seeing the signs out! We created the yard signs for participating nonprofits to take and place in front of their locations to let the community know they are participating in this year’s campaign. We recently had over 200 charities attend the Mohawk Valley Gives University where we handed out the signs to attendees at that event. The impact of the yard signs is testament of the times. September is becoming Mohawk Valley Gives Season. We do have a limited number of yard signs leftover. Businesses and individuals can ask to pick up a couple by emailing us at hello@givemv.org.

The Community Foundation continues to put up billboards reminding people that the giving day is on September 20, 2024.

What action should folks take if they see the signs?

The yard signs are a reminder in our minds that September 20th is the day! Remember to go to the website GiveMV.org, donate, and to share it on your social media, send it to your friends and co-workers to encourage them to support their favorite Mohawk Valley nonprofit organizations. Sharing this with friends and family would be like saying, “I just donated, and you can too!”

September 20th will be here before you know it.