SUNBURY – The 2021 ‘Raise The Region’ campaign is getting underway tonight to support area non-profits. The 30-hour fundraising event begins at 6 p.m. tonight (Wednesday) and runs through 11:59 p.m. Thursday.
Jason McCahan is the Director of Strategic Philanthropy at the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania and he explains how you can donate at raisetheregion.org, “You choose a non-profit you want to support, how much you want to give them. At the end, you do your credit card transaction, all major credit cards are accepted. That money will be turned over directly to them. In addition, the Blaise Alexander Family Dealerships has put up $150,000 in stretch funds, so for every gift you make, a push in the Alexander money will be increased to be given to that non-profit.”
This year, 272 local non-profits in good standing with the IRS will be participating. Donations are a minimum of $25. In addition to looking for your donations, McCahan says non-profits will also be competing for $79,000 in prize money.
There’s also some prizes for donors and you can follow live updates throughout the day Thursday, “We’ll be doing live-stream events tonight (Wednesday) starting I think at 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and then all day tomorrow we’ll have live stream events giving you updates on what’s happening with ‘Raise The Region.’ Of course, we want to thank all our partners at Sunbury Broadcasting Corporation because we’ll have updates on their radio stations as well.”
Aubrey Alexander, Secretary/Treasurer of the Alexander Family Dealerships says there’s also a drive-thru, COVID-friendly kickoff even tonight (Wednesday) at 5 p.m., “We’re having a drive-thru…I’ll call it a parade…at our Blaise Alexander Chevrolet Dealership in Muncy…405 Alexander Drive…anybody in the public can drive through our service drive, three lanes wide, and cast their vote for their favorite non-profit, and they’ll get a little goody bag and be on their way.”
Over the first eight years of the vent, over $10 million has been raised for local non-profits in six counties – Northumberland, Union, Snyder, Montour, Lycoming and Columbia. Over 500,000 donors have also contributed at least one donation, even from out of the area.
