GivingTuesday to help local groups meet funding needs

Nov. 29—GivingTuesday, the annual movement that encourages people to do good, broke a record in 2021 with an estimated 35 million adults participating in different ways to support charitable efforts worldwide.

Held every Tuesday after Thanksgiving, GivingTuesday was started in 2012 with the goal to motivate people to volunteer, advocate and donate to causes that are important to them. In the United States alone, giving in 2021 totaled $2.7 billion, which represented a 9% increase compared with 2020 and a 37% increase since 2019, according to the GivingTuesday Data Commons.

Area nonprofits and charities participating in GivingTueday this year are hoping the generosity continues. Some donors also are offering matching funds to allow donations to go the extra mile.

The Alliance of Southwest Missouri is a nonprofit organization that assists children and families by providing support through safety education, parenting education and other services in Jasper, Newton, McDonald and Barton counties.

The organization launched its capital campaign on GivingTuesday in 2019 with the goal of raising enough to renovate its 116-year-old building at 1601 S. Wall Ave. in Joplin.

A total of $4,082.37 was raised for the Alliance of Southwest Missouri on GivingTuesday in 2021. Jen Black, executive director, said this is the alliance's fifth year of participating in the global day of generosity, and the goal is to raise $15,000 by the end of the year. An anonymous donor has pledged to match all donations up to $10,000.

"There's three things people can give towards — our programming, capital campaign and endowment," Black said. "We were very close to reaching our capital campaign goal. Prior to COVID-19 and inflation, they were projecting our project was going to be $1.5 million. Now that we're past that, they're reevaluating, and it looks like we need $2.8 million for the capital campaign."

In order to meet the campaign's new budget, Black said they need to raise about a million more dollars. A pipe burst in January and flooded both floors of the building, which was also a setback. The building renovations are being completed in phases with roof work slated to begin this week. Phase two includes the exterior of the building.

"We had it broken into four phases, and we've chosen to combine phases three and four, so we'll go into phase three as soon as the exterior is completed," Black said. "Then we can tackle the interior."

To donate to the Alliance of Southwest Missouri on GivingTuesday, visit its website at https://www.theallianceofswmo.org.

Community Clinic

This is the fifth year for the Community Clinic of Southwest Missouri in Joplin to participate in GivingTuesday, which has become the biggest annual fundraiser for the clinic that serves uninsured patients in the region. The Community Clinic, 701 S. Joplin Ave., provides care in eight counties in Southwest Missouri and four counties in Southeast Kansas.

Those services are available at no cost to people who are at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines who do not have access to health care. Medical care is provided by volunteer doctors, nurses and pharmacists with a small staff of paid employees. The work is funded by community donors.

In addition to primary care and specialty care, patients can obtain nutrition services, mental health counseling, dental care, physical therapy, patient advocacy, physical therapy, prescription services and lab services.

Stephanie Brady, executive director, said the clinic aims to raise $75,000 on Tuesday to fund a variety of programs in the areas of women's health, prescription assistance and vision. Brady said the clinic has either met or exceeded its goals every year since participating in GivingTuesday.

"Our women's health program is helping women, who don't have access to health insurance, with breast and cervical screenings to make sure that they're not falling through the cracks when it comes to potential, life-threatening illnesses," Brady said. "Our prescription assistance program helps fund prescriptions for people who don't have access to health insurance, as well. With that, we're able to provide necessary medication to people who otherwise would be going without it. In our vision program, we provide glasses to individuals who are needing prescription glasses for vision needs."

On average, the Community Clinic serves 2,000 unduplicated patients annually with 13,000 visits.

People can donate to the Community Clinic on Tuesday by mailing a check to 701 S. Joplin Ave., Joplin, MO 64801; visiting its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Joplin CommunityClinic; or going to its website at https://joplinclinic.org.

Ozarks Food Harvest

In Southwest Missouri, 1 in 5 children and 1 in 6 adults face hunger, according to Ozarks Food Harvest, the Feeding America food bank for Southwest Missouri.

Ozarks Food Harvest serves 270 community and faith-based charities across 28 counties. The Food Bank reaches 50,000 individuals monthly and provides more than 20 million meals annually.

This year, the food bank has set a fundraising goal to raise $60,000 for GivingTuesday, which will provide more than 240,000 meals to children, families and seniors. Feeding Missouri, A-1 Guarantee Roofing and American National will be matching donations up to $15,000.

"The need is urgent because we're now serving more families than we were at the height of the COVID crisis," said Bart Brown, president/CEO of Ozarks Food Harvest, in a statement. "We supply 70% of the food our network of community and faith-based partners distribute, so the best way to help is with a donation because we can take $1 and turn that into $10 worth of groceries for a family in need."

To donate to Ozarks Food Harvest on GivingTuesday, visit https://ozarksfood harvest.org/donate.