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Give Day Tampa Bay way ahead of last year in fund drive

 
Michael Cooper, from left, and Mike McGinnis talk with Nancy Wright at the Paralyzed Veterans of America table on Tuesday at Channelside Bay Plaza during Give Day.
Michael Cooper, from left, and Mike McGinnis talk with Nancy Wright at the Paralyzed Veterans of America table on Tuesday at Channelside Bay Plaza during Give Day.
Published May 6, 2015

TAMPA — The lunchtime crowd was sparse Tuesday for the Give Day Tampa Bay celebration at Channelside Bay Plaza. Volunteers staffing charity display tables talked among themselves. A lonely bartender dressed for Cinco de Mayo waited for customers.

But online, the party was hopping.

People, many using a new donation app, had contributed nearly $1.6 million for 550 Tampa Bay area nonprofits by early Tuesday evening, with time left to spare in the 24-hour fundraising drive. Last year, it took the whole 24 hours to raise $1.089 million.

"So the activity is kind of in the air,'' said Marlene Spalten, CEO of the Community Foundation Tampa Bay, which joined Florida Next Foundation for the second year to offer the 24-hour online giving challenge.

Spalten did expect a crowd to gather after work for food and drink discounts being offered in exchange for donations.

In an area called the "war room,'' a dozen or more people representing various nonprofits busily tapped their iPhones, iPads and computers, making appeals by text or via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

"I started at home at 7 a.m.,'' a tired-looking Linda Ruescher said about 1 p.m. The director of the Lupus Foundation of Tampa Bay and her board chairwoman, Maggi McQueen, said the work is tough on the fingers but also on the brain, because they try to come up with new pitches every few minutes.

"I say things like, 'Nine out of 10 lupus patients are women,' 'Lupus strikes most often in the child-bearing years,' 'Medications for lupus are toxic,' 'There's no cure for lupus and people die from it,' '' Ruescher said.

Fingers flew during the noon to 1 p.m. contest. The charity compiling the most donations during that hour would win an extra $5,000 from the United Way Suncoast.

The Tampa Bay Rays, HCI and others gave $5,000 awards to the nonprofit that collected a donation closest to sunrise; closest to sunset; and closest to midnight. Sykes Enterprises gave $500 away each hour to the charity raising the most money during that time.

"I've been pumped up since yesterday, texting like crazy,'' said Gloria Lawson with Fostering Hope Florida Inc., which tries to keep siblings together in foster homes.

"It's an easy way for us to raise money, because normally we have to do a big event, and there's all this planning. This is just sit at your iPhone and sit at your iPad and just go.''