New website to promote Naperville charities on 'Giving Tuesday'

A couple of Naperville nonprofit organizations are creating a "one-stop shop" for the day of donations after Thanksgiving known as "Giving Tuesday."

The new website for Naperville Gives is expected to be live by mid-November, giving charitable folks a place to read about causes that could use their support and make donations.

Representatives of Naperville CARES and I Support Community, the organizations that are creating Naperville Gives, say the new site also will help small charities further their missions on the third annual Giving Tuesday on Dec. 2.

"It'll give smaller organizations more of a structure and more guidelines and ways to promote what they're doing to make it more successful," said Marion Ruthig, founder and executive director of I Support Community, which uses video storytelling to connect Naperville-area residents with opportunities to give and volunteer.

Angela Bender, marketing and communications associate for Naperville CARES, said the new web resource is loosely based on the Georgia Gives Day campaign, a statewide website that lists charities and aims to drive donations on Nov. 13.

Instead of each charity running its own Giving Tuesday campaign on its website and/or social media, Bender said the unified Naperville Gives approach could prove more powerful.

"It felt like if we bound together that we maybe could get a little more traction and help each other out and create more awareness for all the nonprofits in Naperville," said Bender, whose organization, Naperville CARES, helps families in crisis meet basic financial needs including rent, utilities and car repairs.

Bender and Ruthig notified charities of their plans to create the new site early this week and already have heard from four of them interested in joining Naperville Gives. The new website will allow each organization to create its own page to explain its purpose and needs - whether for money, supplies or volunteers. Charity pages on Naperville Gives will link back to the organization's main website and will provide a button to donate directly to the cause, Ruthig said.

The site also will allow people to create a profile page and seek donations on behalf of an organization of their choice.

"People can have a charity they're passionate about that's on Naperville Gives, they can sign up to be a fundraiser and have their own mini page about why they care about that organization and why they hope people donate," Ruthig said.

While charities continue signing up to participate in Naperville Gives, the website is being hosted as a page on the I Support Community website at https://isupportcommunity.givebig.org/c/NFP. By mid-November, Ruthig said the web address will be napervillegives.org.

Charities interested in participating should contact Bender at (630) 369-0200 or abender@napervillecares.org.