By Lexington Souers

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Local nonprofits are working toward a gift to remember this holiday season.

The GoodGiving Guide Challenge, sponsored by the Blue Grass Community Foundation and Smiley Pete Publishing, is a six week long social media driven fundraising campaign, and the physical guide gives those who are unable to donate financially a way to do in-person volunteer work.

More than 100 nonprofits participate, and cover a myriad of issues from health and environment to animal welfare.

“The GoodGiving Guide Challenge is the idea of engaging donors locally through technology,” said Laurie Preston, the Blue Grass Community Foundation’s manager of community philanthropy.

The organizations are screened through applications and approved through a board of community members. This year there are 85 returning organizations and 15 new ones.

“We don’t want to give money to people who don’t understand,” said Chuck Creacy, a publisher with Smiley Pete Publishing.

Creacy was inspired after visiting Portland, Oregon, where there is a similar guide, and sat on the idea for eight years before he started working on it. Creacy was pushed by the co-founder of West Sixth Brewing owner Ben Self.

“Five years ago, I was having a beer with Ben Self and I told him about the idea and how I wanted to do something similar in Lexington. He’s the one that suggested I work with the Blue Grass Community Foundation,” Creacy said. “We wanted to engage thousands of people in giving.”

According to Creacy the goal was to raise money and educate people on what nonprofits are in Lexington. As well, Creacy wanted to educate non-profits about new fundraising opportunities.

“A silent auction is great, everybody loves a silent auction,” Creacy said. “But it’s not the most cost efficient.”

Last year the event raised $1.7 million. Creacy said one of the benefits of The GoodGiving Guide is people can give any amount they want to a number of organizations. The guide uses razoo.com, which allows donors to treat giving as a sort of online shopping.

“Even $10 tells an organization that you care about then them and support them,” Creacy said.

The program has grown since it first began and according to Preston there has been a shift to endowments rather than events that challenge readers to raise a specific amount of money within a set time.

She explained endowments as “money in the bank” that organizations can use at later dates.

“These are the people that are our neighbors, they’re the people we have coffee with … they work for nonprofits,”

Preston said about why the event has been successful in the Lexington area.

Both Preston and Creacy said there is currently a plateau in giving, but they expect it to pick up closer to the holidays.

Creacy said the last day of the year is one of the biggest days for giving.

Allowing anyone and everyone to donate has been key to The GoodGiving Guide’s success.

“Aside from the 35 and under, I think we’ve done a wonderful job,” Creacy said.

The goal is to continue targeting a younger crowd.

“I would like to see at least 1,000 young people give $10. That would make me jump for joy,” Creacy said. “We would love to see a couple thousand students give a crap for 30 seconds.”

One of those opportunities for students is the Blue Grass Rock Paper Scissors Tournament at the Chevy Chase Inn on Tuesday at 7 p.m. An online donation of $10-25 is suggested.