May 3rd Day of Giving Suspended – To Be Rescheduled

Please read the following statement from the pittsburghgives.org website:

The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Day of Giving program, which in its six years of operation has raised more than $40 million for worthy nonprofits through a combination of individual donations and generous match pooling, has now been forced to suspend operation of today’s event.

The decision was made this afternoon after the national online fundraising firm’s technology platform used by 54 participating community foundations across the country had technical problems that severely disrupted the ability of tens of thousands of donors to complete transactions on coordinating organizations’ websites such as our PittsburghGives.org portal.

We were on track in the first few hours to raise $1.5 million until the technical issues occurred. To resume that enthusiasm, we are committing to re-schedule another Day of Giving for the region, which includes Butler, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, with an underlying online donation platform that we trust. And we will provide an additional $100,000 in incentives to the $100,000 already in place for today’s event. We also want to assure all participants who were able to make donations today that they will be honored and apply to the incentive pool that has been in place.

While we very much regret having to suspend our participation, we recognize that we need to be able to maintain the high standards of performance and donor experience that we know nonprofits and those they support expect in this annual event. It is for that reason that we are the first among participating foundations to pull out of the event.

While we could not repair on our own what happened with the computer operation of Kimbia, the Austin-based online fundraising and crowdfunding firm that provides the online platform for Give Local America and the Day of Giving, we certainly have the ability now to stop a malfunctioning process and work to make it right for our region.

We understand the frustration that Pittsburgh area nonprofits and their donors are feeling with this disruption, and we’re sure that the scores of other organizations across the country coordinating through the fundraising firm are feeling it as well. We look forward to re-scheduling this event as soon as possible to provide our region with a charitable online donation experience that is worthy of the record-setting generous spirit of all the people and organizations that participate in this event.