Daniel Island giving campaign offers opportunity for meaningful year-end gifts
Do you wish you could do more to give back? There is a unique opportunity underway for Daniel Island residents to support local charitable organizations and have our donations matched (up to $5000 per organization), thereby doubling our donations.
The main tenet of the Daniel Island Community Foundation is to support and encourage giving by Daniel Island residents and businesses. Our community is incredibly generous and our passions are equally diverse. Several top organizations chosen via resident survey still need help reaching their 2018 fundraising goals and there are only a few weeks left to contribute.
Over my 15 years on Daniel Island, I’ve read annual reports outlining the philanthropic giving through the Daniel Island Community Fund, including both community projects and donations to the surrounding community organizations. I nodded approvingly, knowing that the fees collected through our real estate resale transactions allowed the DI Community Fund to support our local food banks, child advocacy centers, library, schools and disaster relief. Although pleased our community was contributing, I was still somewhat removed from the giving process. Learning of a new opportunity to become involved in a way that would encourage direct resident giving, I leapt at the chance to support the Foundation. It affords us as residents the chance to select an organization of our choice, donate and know that through the matching campaign, our contributions will make even more of a difference.
Earlier this year the Foundation held a children’s philanthropy contest that rewarded kids who held their own fundraisers like lemonade stands, golf cart washes or bake sales, and hopefully sparked a lifeloelng passion for philanthropy in our youngest residents. Today, we all have the chance to make a difference through the 2018 matching campaign. Whether you’re passionate about human service or children’s issues, animals, environmental concerns or education, there is an organization to fit your donation.
The current list of eligible groups for 2018 is as follows: East Cooper Meals on Wheels, Lowcountry Food Bank, East Cooper Community Outreach (ECCO), Veterans of Foreign Wars, Lowcountry Orphan Relief, Darkness to Light, the Dee Norton Child Advocacy Center, Reading Partners, Daniel Island School PTA, Philip Simmons High School PTA, Berkeley County SPCA, Water Missions International, the Sustainability Institute, and East Cooper Land Trust.
As you ponder your many blessings this holiday season, please consider supporting one of these worthy organizations by giving through the Daniel Island Community Foundation matching campaign. Your tax-deductible donations can be made by visiting www.danielisland.com/community.
Elizabeth Perkis is a longtime Daniel Island resident who is actively involved in numerous non-profit organizations throughout Charleston and currently serves on the Daniel Island Community Foundation resident advisory committee.