Monterey County Gives! smashes its fundraising record, giving nonprofits a boost to continue their important work.

Erik Chalhoub here, remembering around this time last year, when I wrote about what was then a record-setting number for the annual Monterey County Gives! campaign.

The key word in that sentence is “then,” because that record was smashed.

For 2024, Monterey County Gives! generated $14,278,798 for 206 nonprofits, a 19-percent increase over 2023.

The campaign, conceived by the Monterey County Weekly in association with the Community Foundation for Monterey County and the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, ran from Nov. 14-Dec. 31.

The results were announced during a Zoom meeting with more than 200 nonprofit representatives and others on Feb. 13.

As is tradition, a number of nonprofits also received special awards:

• $2,500 Ingenuity Award: Sun Street Centers
• $1,000 Highest Number of Donors Award: Peace of Mind Dog Rescue
• $1,000 Most Donors 18-35 Years Old: Monterey Peninsula Pride
• $1,000 (each) Florence Haspel Zeve Award for women, families and the arts: Carmel Dance Festival, Musikiwest and New Canon Theatre Co.

What is especially encouraging to organizers is the growing number of young people getting involved in the campaign. For 2024, 507 people ages 18-35 donated, a 13-percent increase over 2023.

I spoke with Sun Street Centers’ Chief Executive Officer Anna Foglia, whose organization also enjoyed a record-setting year with Monterey County Gives!, garnering $58,650. (You can read more about how Sun Street Centers plans on using the funds for overdose prevention in the next issue of the Weekly, out Thursday.)

Sun Street Centers has participated in the campaign for years. So how does it continue to grow its own fundraising numbers?

Foglia says it enlisted the help of its young volunteers, who present on the importance of Sun Street Centers’ programs as well as Monterey County Gives! to schools, parent groups and through social media.

“This is our opportunity to develop our young donors,” she says. “We’ve made many new friends who didn’t know about us thanks to this program.”

Congratulations to the nonprofits who were part of Monterey County Gives! But the work is not over. Now is the time to start thinking about this year’s campaign: what are your most pressing needs? How do you plan on engaging donors?

A request for proposals for the 2025 Monterey County Gives! campaign will be released in the Weekly and Monterey County NOW in the summer.