Some of Minnesota's biggest nonprofits are following a new strategy to feed off the energy of Thursday's Give to the Max Day, the 24-hour giving extravaganza that has grappled repeatedly with tech problems.
Nonprofits lean on Give to the Max Day — the state's largest annual one-day fundraising effort — to draw supporters who may be unfamiliar with their name but sympathetic to their cause. But technical mishaps with the fundraising interface have frustrated donors and participating charities on what is often their single largest moneymaking day of the year.
Fearful of more glitches, some nonprofits are diverting loyal donors to their own online platforms, while still letting new benefactors discover them on the Give to the Max website, GiveMN.org.
Popular organizations like Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity have blasted splashy e-mails encouraging subscribers to "Give to the Max," yet those who click on the hyperlink embedded in the phrase are redirected to the organization's private donor page rather than GiveMN.org. A Habitat spokeswoman said they're simply adopting a "two-pronged approach" meant to capture every possible dollar.
The Animal Humane Society, the fifth-highest-grossing nonprofit on Give to the Max Day last year, shifted resources away from promotions linked to the fundraiser, like puppy grams, toward securing gifts ahead of time by raising awareness at their shelters. The goal is to make the Humane Society more self-sufficient should the GiveMN website crash, said communications director Paul Sorenson.
"We haven't been able to rely on the technology. This is an opportunity to control all the pieces and tell our own story," Sorenson said. "We're trying to have the best of both worlds."
In 2016, GiveMN shattered fundraising records by raking in $20.1 million for 6,000 schools and other nonprofits. However, online contributors battled seven hours of technical obstacles, relying on a bare-bones backup site to process $3.5 million in donations without the benefit of the main website's running totals or leaderboards. To quell discontent, GiveMN refunded to the nonprofits its 6.9 percent transaction fees — totaling about $300,000 — from when the website was down.
"We know that we have not always met expectations," said GiveMN Executive Director Jake Blumberg, whose site has faltered to some degree three of the last four years.