Philanthropy for the masses: Give!Guide engages community-minded donors

Photo by V. Kapoor

by Israel Bayer, Staff writer

The Give!Guide, created by the Willamette Week in 2004, started by raising $20,000 for a handful of local nonprofits. Nine years later, it helps raise more than $1.5 million dollars for more than 100 local organizations. The groups span the fields of animal services, the arts, community, education, environment health and wellness social action and youths.

The mission of the Give!Guide is to instill an annual giving habit in Portlanders under the age of 36. Equally important is the guide’s goal to raise as much money as possible for the nonprofits profiled online at wweek.com/giveguide.

Street Roots, which is among the nonprofits in the Give!Guide, sat down with Nick Johnson, the guide’s executive director, to talk about the project.

Israel Bayer: Tell us about the Give!Guide.

Nick Johnson: The goal of the Give!Guide is to create a platform to compel the Willamette Week’s readership to give back to the community and engage individuals in their civic duty.

It’s also meant to encourage people under 36 to give at a younger age. We know that if younger people give a donation, even if it’s only $10, they are more likely to give throughout their entire lifetime. 

Plug in, turn on, get engaged and volunteer

Muhammad Ali once said, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” That quote couldn’t be more telling during these hard times. Street Roots along with hundreds of other nonprofits across the city rely on community support in the form of volunteering to make their organizations the best they can be.

It’s important for all us to work towards marrying the changing demographics of our city with the many organizations working to make a difference. There’s no question that with the ever-increasing need, coupled with government decreasing its ability to deliver any number of important services, from the environment to animals to human beings, Portland has its work cut out for it.