The Giving Catalog connects nonprofits like MLK Center to donors with community-lifting projects
The Quad Cities Community Foundation’s Giving Catalog connects donors with dozens of nonprofits in the region. Each organization featured in the catalog is seeking funding for a mission-expanding project. By bringing these projects together, the Giving Catalog exemplifies the wide range of organizations that are working to make the Quad Cities a better place for everyone.
Check out the Giving Catalog here.
“Our donors care deeply about this community, and they want their gifts to make a big impact,” said Anne Calder, Community Foundation vice president of development. “We designed the Giving Catalog to make giving more accessible and to connect donors with organizations they might not have known about otherwise.”
The Martin Luther King Jr. Center, for example, is seeking $2,500 to revamp their organization’s activity room. “This is an important space for our work in family advocacy,” said Rebecca Arnold, resource development manager at the MLK Center. “It’s meant to be a safe space, a space of healing, a space for connection, but unfortunately, right now, it is not in a condition that supports these goals.”
The activity room is used daily by MLK Center staff as well as other community organizations who are working in the West End neighborhood. “The room is used for court-ordered mediation, family reconciliation, and supervised visitation, among other things,” said Arnold. “The people using this room are at their most vulnerable. It needs to be a space that respects their situation and provides a feeling of security and safety, especially for the children that use the room.”
When this fundraising goal is met, the MLK Center will renovate the room and ensure that it contains the items and energy needed for advocates to do their work and for families to feel supported. “The room is currently functional, but it needs to be more than that,” said Arnold. “We picture new toys to entertain children, comfortable, matching furnishings, clean paint and light—a space people look forward to entering.”
The MLK Center is roughly halfway toward their goal. “I think people are more engaged when their gift is going to a discrete, tangible goal,” said Arnold. “If someone sees this in the catalog, they get a clear sense of our organizational values, and they can contribute directly to a project that extends those values into the community.”
“For those thinking about year-end giving, this is the place to do your shopping,” said Calder. “Consider giving a gift in honor of a loved one or friend. It’s a gift that will directly change lives in your community.”