Fundraiser raises money for area nonprofits

The Anne Carlsen Center raised $64,000 on Feb. 14 as part of the sixth annual Giving Hearts Day online fundraiser presented by the Dakota Medical Foundation and the Impact Foundation.

This exceeded the center’s goal to raise $52,000 through the fundraiser.

“We can’t begin to thank our generous donors for their tremendous display of support,” said Eric Monson, the center’s CEO.

The ACC also received a $1,000 donation from VISIONBank for a video the center made to draw attention to its Giving Hearts Day fundraising effort.

The ACC was among several area nonprofits that received funds through the campaign.

Giving Hearts Day is a 24-hour online fundraising event hosted by the DMF through the Impact Foundation. Donors went to the website www.impactgive

back.org and clicked on the link to the nonprofit to which they wanted to contribute. Contributions of $10 to $4,000 were matched by the DMF.

Overall the event raised $3.67 million this year, more than double the $1.6 million raised in 2012.

“We are thrilled with this result,” said Pat Traynor, executive director of the DMF and president of the Impact Foundation, which is part of DMF.

Traynor said the foundation’s overall goal this year was $2 million.

“When you consider that in 2008 we raised $326,015 and were excited about that result, just seeing how far we’ve come is amazing,” he said.

Traynor said all the nonprofit groups chosen to be part of this year’s event did a good job of publicizing their causes and piquing the interest of donors.

Dan Mimnaugh, director of the Elks Camp Grassick near Dawson, N.D., said the camp raised $35,700 in donations, including a $4,000 match from DMF. Last year the camp received $20,000.

“We did really well,” Mimnaugh said. “I think we did a better job of promoting ourselves before the event. We received a lot of donations from people who aren’t already in our donation database.”

This was the first year for Service Dogs for America, based out of Jud, N.D., to participate in Giving Hearts Day.

“We raised $23,550 in our inaugural try here,” said Shelley Nannenga, SDA development director.

The funds will go to help train dogs for the nonprofit’s clients. Nannenga said their goal is to provide service dogs to those who need them at no cost to the client.

The Minn-Kota Region of the American Red Cross received more than $19,000 through the fundraiser. Last year the group raised $12,000.

“This was fantastic,” said Brian Shaw, regional communications officer for the Minn-Kota region. Donors from the Buffalo Valley Chapter of the Minn-Kota region, which includes the Jamestown area, raised about $1,500 of that amount, according to Shaw.

Special Olympics of North Dakota received $15,648 in donations and matching funds from the DMF.

“That was way above last year,” said Brent Lindstrom, administrative assistant for the SOND in Grand Forks. “We got about $2,700 last year. This year we got the word out and people responded.”

The top fundraiser for 2013 was the FirstChoice Clinic of Fargo, a pro-life pregnancy counseling center, which raised $249,787 in donations. Since the clinic received the most donations it received the DMF’s top achievement grant of $15,000 for a total of $264,787.

Sun reporter Chris Olson can be reached at 701-952-8454 or by email at colson@jamestownsun.com

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