At this very moment at the North Texas Food Bank, Communities Foundation of Texas is holding a press conference during which it's formally unveiling DonorBridge, which pairs potential donors with nonprofits throughout North Texas and across the country -- and then offers hundreds of thousands in matching funds courtesy CFT and The Dallas Foundation, at least till the money runs dry. The kickoff is today, and Mayor Tom Leppert has dubbed tomorrow "Dallas Giving Day."
The purpose of DonorBridge is to make it easy to give. Simple as that.
"We're all used to having convenient ways to download music, buy movie tickets and check our 401k, but when it comes down to figuring out what's going on in your community with organizations that help people, there's no one-stop way to get that information," Brent Christopher, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Texas, told Unfair Park this morning. "This is one place that has information about everyone -- every nonprofit in the U.S., thousands -- and in-depth profiles on around 350 local organizations. There's information on programs, volunteer leadership, operating expenses, all the things potential donors want to know. And we're continuing to add more nonprofit organizations every day."
Christopher says the project has been in the works for two years and was modeled in part after similar online databases in Columbus and Kansas City.
"We made sure it's as straightforward and simple as possible," he says. "We wanted to repackage the information in a user-friendly way, and we feel it does that better than any other site."
Though they started the project long before the recession hit, Christopher says the timing is perfect, since many organizations are struggling to raise money in the ailing economy.Starting today, anyone can log on to donorbridgetx.org to peruse area organizations' programs, missions and finances, and make a donation that will be matched dollar-for-dollar -- at least while $300,000 put up by the Communities Foundation of Texas and The Dallas Foundation lasts.
"The tools are avail to anybody," Christopher says. "You don't have to have a history of supporting any particular organization."
