Naperville Gives Day starts charitable season earlier

The season of giving is starting early in Naperville.

The second annual Naperville Gives Day, an event promoting online donations to charities, is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 21.

The date has been moved up roughly a month to give about two dozen participating charities their own time in the sun, apart from the festivities of the national "Giving Tuesday" after Thanksgiving, said Angela Bender, one of the organizers of Naperville Gives Day.

"This gives it a day where we can just focus on Naperville-area nonprofits," said Bender, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit Naperville CARES. "We decided to do that just to give it a little more local focus."

Also new this year, three businesses are offering discounts to customers who bring in their Naperville Gives Day receipts and seven others are donating a portion of their proceeds from the 21st back to the charitable effort.

"Both are encouraging giving, which we appreciate," Bender said.

A new in-person donation drive will give downtown Naperville shoppers a chance to give on a whim.

"I think it's going to be a great day and great to have a lot of businesses involved this year," said Marion Ruthig, a Naperville Gives Day organizers who is founder and executive director of the nonprofit I Support Community.

Donors can visit napervillegives.org to find the list of participating charities and make a donation online. Or the new donation drive gives an in-person option from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 21 at Pinot's Palette, 175 Jackson Ave., Suite 123.

Inside the painting party place, Naperville Gives Day volunteers will have laptops where people can log in to make donations. In-person donors or online participants who bring their receipts will get an "I Donated" sticker, hot chocolate and other sweet treats.

When Naperville Gives Day launched last year, donors raised $4,000 for 12 charities. This year, with double the participating groups, Ruthig said organizers hope to bring in more than double the money. They've set a goal of $10,000.

The event will raise money for Naperville-area charities in arts, social services, community and social action, animals, children and families, education, disability services, veteran services, religion and health. Clicking on the "donate now" link at the top of the home page brings visitors to a menu where they can search by the type of cause they're interested in supporting.

"We're hoping it's a way for people to be introduced to nonprofits that maybe they haven't heard of before," Bender said.

Even before Thanksgiving rolls around and the inboxes of those famously charitable Napervillians become cluttered with emotional pleas for funds, Naperville Gives Day is one way to start helping and doing good, organizers say.

"It'll also get people starting to think about the giving season, which is nice," Ruthig said.

New website to promote Naperville charities on 'Giving Tuesday'