From just after midnight Thursday through Friday, nearly 200 local organizations will take part in an online giving marathon in which donations will be stretched, thanks to the Lancaster County Community Foundation.

The foundation created "The Extraordinary Give" to spur additional donations from regular donors and to inspire people who have not previously donated to do so, said Sam Bressi, president and CEO of the foundation.

"The No. 1 reason people don't give is they've never been asked," Bressi said Monday.

The community foundation is committing $300,000 to the program — $250,000 to a match pool and $50,000 for incentives. 

To give, donors can log onto ExtraGive.org.

"From our perspective, it's about putting the power in the individuals' hands to give to what they want to give to," Bressi said.

In all, 192 organizations are taking part. When the event was announced this summer, organizers were hoping for 100 participants,  Bressi said.

Participating organizations are big and small, well-known and lesser-known.

"We're able to say, here's a group of 192 very diverse organizations serving our community in very unique ways and bringing value to the community  —and not only that but they are financially in the spot where they are doing the right thing, " Bressi said.

Among the organizations taking part is Excentia, which provides support to people with intellectual disabilities.

Karen Fitzgerald, Excentia's director of development and marketing, said the event is an opportunity for organizations to increase awareness about what they do.

"Money is one thing, but it's the awareness, too," Fitzgerald said. Excentia was formerly known as PIA (Partners in Achieving Independence).

"I was really impressed with the Lancaster County Community Foundation for doing something like this," she said.

Penny Talbert, executive director of the Ephrata Public Library, is confident the library's participation will help it reopen another day a week.

"I feel like just kind of the stars aligned for this because we were getting more and more pressure from our patrons to be open on Fridays," she said.

Several years ago, the library had to close Fridays and Sundays because of reduced funding. To reopen on Fridays next year, the library needs $16,000.

Taking part in the program was a "no-brainer," Talbert said.

"We are a little bit careful about how we spend our time fundraising because. sometimes, you can actually spend more time" on a fundraiser than what it brings in, she said.

The library also was able to leverage the community foundation's marketing of the event.

"That extra promotion is really going to make a difference," Talbert said.

Like some participating organizations, the Ephrata library has events scheduled around the fundraising marathon for Friday, when the library will be open for 24 straight hours.

Similarly, the community foundation will set up a 24-hour "giving lounge" at the Ware Center in Lancaster, where it will have donor kiosks and live entertainment.

The match pool works this way: If Friday's donations total $1 million, and "Charity X" raised $50,000, or five percent of the total, that charity would get $12,500, or five percent of the match pool.

The incentives are geared toward organizations, Bressi said.

For instance, the first 10 organizations that receive 50 donations of at least $25 (the minimum donation) will get an additional $1,000. And seven times throughout the day, donors will be randomly selected to have an additional $1,000 added to their donation.

Two $2,500 prizes will be given to two organizations that have the largest number of donors. One prize is for an organization with an operating budget larger than $1 million and the other is for an organization with an operating budget under $1 million.

The $300,000 is separate from the foundation's budget for annual grants, which has distributed more than $2 million in each of the last three years.

More information on the fundraiser can be found at extragive.org.
dnephin@lnpnews.com