Match Day effort raises $1.8 million for food, shelter

MILWAUKEE -- The first Match Day event raised $1,813,355.79 to support 19 food and shelter agencies in southeast Wisconsin.

The special online giving event  was coordinated by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, raised $1,010,662 from 3,561 individuals to support three food programs and 16 area shelters.

A special preview day for Foundation donors on March 7 raised $127,693.79. Each gift made will be proportionately matched with money from a $675,000 pool, resulting in the total of more than $1.8 million.

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Brewers Community Foundation, The Ceres Foundation, Faye McBeath Foundation, United Way of Greater Milwaukee and several Foundation donor advisors funds contributed to the pool.

Highlights from the 19-hour event:

• The first gift – a total of $50 to The Cathedral Center – was made 2 minutes after the event started at 5 a.m.
• The heaviest volume in terms of giving activity was between 7 and 8 a.m. and 7 and 8 p.m.
• A total of 5,023 donations were made through matchdaymke.org on March 8.
• The Milwaukee Rescue Mission raised the most of the participating agencies – 510 individual donors contributed $180,634.
• The three food programs – Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, Food Pantry of Waukesha County and the Hunger Task Force – raised a total of $296,351.
• The 16 participating shelters raised a total of $640,603.
• Through contests run on Facebook and the Match Day website, a total of 76 people won prizes generously donated by the Milwaukee Brewers and Time Warner Cable.