Thank you to all who participated in Give Local Louisville on September 15! Our amazing supporters gave 158 unique gifts to 21st Century Parks, raising $36,150 for The Parklands of Floyds Fork! The generosity of the community went even further, raising more than $4 million for Louisville’s nonprofits IN ONE DAY! Thanks so much, Louisville, for being OUR compassionate city!

Every day in The Parklands is a gift, but there are other days to which we look particularly forward. We have Giving Tuesday, and now we have Give Local Louisville– a wonderfully energetic 24-hour online-giving day that brings our community together in support of local nonprofits. It’s a nice reminder of all the wonderful work that is being done in our town and that it is only made possible by donors like you.

We hope you will consider donating to 21^st Century Parks and The Parklands on Give Local Louisville Day at this link: https://givelocallouisville.org/npo/21st-century-parks-inc.

Every gift of $10 or more helps make us eligible for a greater percentage of the matching pool—which makes your gift even more powerful. All gifts of $35 and above will receive Parklands Memberships (or renew them if you’re already a Member!). Here’s how it works:

Not only does this day raise awareness for all participating nonprofits, and make everyone feel warm and fuzzy, there is a $150,000 bonus pool that will be distributed equally among nonprofits that reach certain fundraising tiers:

• Tier 1: Secure 25 unique gifts and receive an equal split of $50,000
• Tier 2– Secure 50 unique gifts and receive an equal split of $50,000
• Tier 3– Secure 75 unique gifts and receive an equal split of $50,000

As you can imagine, the more unique gifts you receive, the higher up the ladder you climb, presumably splitting the pot with fewer nonprofits. Ideally, we’d like to receive 75 or more unique gifts to be eligible for the most matching funds. That means we just need 75 gifts of $10 or more- and we know there are more than 75 Parklands fans out there willing to help us get there!

There are also lots of other prizes like “golden tickets” (random selection each hour of one of every donation made within that hour for a chance at a $1000 bonus to that donation’s selected nonprofit) and early bird and late night prizes. All of these prizes just make it more important to receive gifts consistently throughout the entire 24-hour period.

The clean, safe, fun and beautiful parks you enjoy every day in The Parklands are the direct result of gifts like these to our annual fund. Sept. 15 is just a day to provide some incentive for those of you who have not yet become members or who think they can give a bit more to help make their dollars stretch further.

So, on September 15 we hope you find time to support The Parklands and other nonprofits near and dear to your hearts on the Give Local Louisville website (please note that donations made on www.theparklands.org will NOT count towards our total, only those made at this link). We’ll keep track of all gifts on our end and send you a thank you note and any relevant Membership information after the 24-hour period is over.

If you’ve been thinking of becoming a Member and just haven’t gotten around to it yet, now is the perfect time to stretch your gift a bit further (and who doesn’t like MORE)! So gather your friends and get the word out- Sept. 15 is Give Local Louisville Day!

P.S.  If you participate, make sure to post to social media, tagging The Parklands of Floyds Fork and #GiveLocalLou and tell us what prompted you to give; we’d love to hear all about it!

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About the Author

Ellen has been the Director of Development at 21st Century Parks since April of 2015. In this role she oversees fundraising functions for The Parklands, including the annual fund/membership campaign, corporate sponsorships, supporting the Board of Directors, leading major fundraising events, and seeking grant and foundational support. It’s her goal to create multiple compelling opportunities for donors to support The Parklands, a donor-supported public park that does not receive tax dollar support on an annual basis but has four world-class parks free and open to the public 365 days a year.

Although fairly new to this role, Ellen is intimately familiar with The Parklands as she spent the previous 3 years as the Communications Manager in charge of public relations, social media, community outreach and marketing for the parks. Before joining 21st Century Parks she spent three years with Louisville-based advertising agency Doe-Anderson. Her background also includes marketing and account service roles at Anheuser-Busch InBev, PriceWeber advertising agency, and direct mail marketing at Traffic Builders, Inc. Ellen is a graduate of Marietta College where she studied advertising, public relations and marketing and played volleyball. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, camping, and traveling with her two mutts and her husband Andrew.