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Registration for the 2026 Giving Challenge Is Now Closed

The Community Foundation of Sarasota County will host its 10th online giving day from noon to noon, April 15-16, 2026. The Giving Challenge is a 24-hour giving event that supports nonprofits in Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, and DeSoto counties. 

The 2026 event will mark the 10th Giving Challenge hosted by the Community Foundation since 2012. To recognize this milestone, new prizes are being developed by the Community Foundation.

What Is the Giving Challenge?

Since 2012, the Giving Challenge has acted as a catalyst for connection, helping donors throughout our region show their love for local nonprofits by providing more than $92 million in unrestricted funding over nine challenges.

The Giving Challenge is a 24-hour virtual giving event that brings together more than 700 local nonprofits listed on The Giving Partner with their passionate donors and community members to support causes and missions they care about while creating transformative impact.

Each participating organization has demonstrated a commitment to transparency by developing an in-depth profile in The Giving Partner. Participation in the Giving Challenge is contingent upon your nonprofit having an updated profile in The Giving Partner. Visit TheGivingPartner.org to check your organization’s status and learn more about other nonprofits’ mission, impact, leadership, planning, and financials.
 
Thanks to our community’s generous support and enthusiasm, the Giving Challenge has expanded far beyond its initial timeline and has continued on a variable schedule, allowing nonprofits to develop:
 
  • Independent fundraising plans that support their work in a deeper way throughout the year—not just during the challenge.
  • Meaningful relationships between organizations and donors who may have first connected with their mission through the Giving Challenge.
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Need Assistance?

Giving Challenge Support

941-556-7171

GivingChallenge@CFSarasota.org

Highlights From the 2024 Giving Challenge

In 24 hours on April 9 and 10, 2024, donors across the community united with an outpouring of support for the Giving Challenge, raising more than $17.2 million for 724 participating nonprofits in Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, and DeSoto counties.

With more than $10.5 million provided in community support and prizes from 53,305 donors and 90,147 total gifts, along with $6,725,932 million in matching funds from The Patterson Foundation, the 2024 Giving Challenge affirmed our community’s generosity, bringing the total raised through the Giving Challenge to more than $92 million over the last decade.

Thanks to your generosity, the 2024 Giving Challenge enhanced and augmented the efforts of our nonprofit community. The unrestricted funds raised during the Giving Challenge now provide our nonprofit partners flexibility to respond to community needs.

Giving Challenges of the past have raised more than funds: They’ve raised spirits in hard times and raised the prospect of hope during moments of uncertainty. Over the years, we've collected impact testimonials. Read about nonprofits’ experiences with previous Giving Challenges—how they leveraged their strengths to maximize fundraising and the ways in which the Giving Challenge supported their ability to pursue their missions in these impact testimonials.

To analyze data and refine and build upon best practices, we invited participating nonprofits to share their experiences through a Giving Challenge Outcomes Survey.

With 386 responses collected from local nonprofits, the 2024 Nonprofit Survey & Giving Challenge Summary Report measured several key factors, including years participated, budget size, outcomes and fundraising goals, and nonprofit and business collaborations.

Trainings for Nonprofits

The Community Foundation is hosting a number of online trainings for nonprofits to help them prepare for the 2026 Giving Challenge and recordings of all past trainings are available on the Giving Challenge website. Visit GivingChallenge.org/info/trainings for the latest.

The Giving Partner vs. the Giving Challenge

What are the differences between The Giving Partner and Giving Challenge?

  • The Giving Partner is a year-round, everyday online giving platform that showcases profiles of nonprofits with local impact. Learn more here.
  • The Giving Challenge is a 24-hour online giving event, typically held every other year, exclusively for nonprofit organizations with a tax status of 501(c)(3) Public Supported Charity or Public Charity Supporting Organization with an Approved (Current) status in The Giving Partner. This event provides nonprofits with the opportunity to gain exposure and create relationships with donors, and brings our community together to raise funds for local nonprofits. To learn more, click here.

 

Partners

The Giving Challenge is presented by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County with giving strengthened by The Patterson Foundation.

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