GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. —
Inspired by Amplify Austin Day and how much money they raised, Founder of Grand Rapids Giving Day Erika Plunkett wanted to transform Giving Tuesday in Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids Giving Day will try to raise $250,000 that will go to 50 female-founded, grassroots, and/or innovative nonprofits.
“Our goal is to make sure [people] come and support the different nonprofits,” said Monica Sparks, founder of the nonprofit Community of Hearts. “I mean, the nonprofits range from everything so from mental health to growth with food insecurities environmental.”
People are invited to the Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation on Dec. 3 to meet the nonprofits who are participating.
“They can come meet the individual. So it's not like you're just giving to this nonprofit that's, you know, you have no idea of who they are and the work that they do,” said Sparks. “The nonprofits that are part of this, the 50 nonprofits, are transformative nonprofits here locally, so they affect what's going on in the community.”
Sparks' Community of Hearts focuses on mental health advocacy. Their relaxation station will be at the event giving massages and other rest and relaxation activities for the nonprofit leaders.
“These nonprofit leaders can take a break, much-needed break, come get some R and R in here,” said Plunkett. “Take a minute as we're fundraising and hustling and doing all the things to kind of restore, and then [Sparks is] also very graciously gifting a couple of hours of this bus to the nonprofit that raises the most money.”
Beyond giving money, Grand Rapids Giving Day is inspiring 100,000 acts of kindness.
“It's really creative. It's very open-ended. We're just figuring out how to collect all that data, and we'll get better and better as we go,” Plunkett said. “But it's been a lot of out-of-the-box thinking of, how do we track it? How do we do it? What is an act of kindness? How do you define it? And that's kind of fun to explore. What is what does it mean to do an act of kindness and hear what different people perceive that as.”
Grand Rapids Giving Day will be Tuesday, Dec. 3 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Grand Rapids Center for Community and Transformation.