A project of the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania, based in Williamsport, “Raise the Region” has for almost a
decade helped hundreds of non-profits throughout northcentral Pennsylvania raise an aggregate of more than $12 million. Each year since 2013, the
thirty-hour on-line event has grown in participating organizations, in donors, and in dollars raised. The Exchange first took part in 2014 – only six weeks after the fire in the Moose Exchange building. That year, many of our donors gave out of a sense of loss, but with their support we climbed out of that giant hole and over that giant obstacle, and we now attract contributions from donors who celebrate our successes.
This year’s event comes up on the 9th and 10th of March, a Wednesday and Thursday. As always, one can make donations through RaiseTheRegion.org
beginning at 6 p.m. on the first day and continuing for the next thirty hours. As part of its hosting of the event, the First Community Foundation has
attracted funding from a number of for-profit partners that will “stretch” your contributions; some of it comes as a straight percentage match of every
dollar, and some of it comes in the form of “prizes” for organizations that meet various criteria, whether attracting the most unique donors overall
or the most in a particular hour or just getting lucky to get chosen randomly. Our friends at the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble take a very organized and enterprising approach, and they put in many hours on the phone in the weeks ahead of “Raise the Region”, contacting all of their donors and encouraging them to make gifts; the efforts have paid off, with BTE regularly winning for the most unique donors.
We do not have BTE’s long history and its extensive donor base to draw upon, so we do not try to compete for prizes – but that does not mean that we do not take “Raise the Region” seriously. Far from it: We recognize it as an excellent opportunity for us to make outreach to all of the people in our community who recognize the value of what The Exchange does throughout the year and to ask them to do what they can to support us through a monetary contribution (each one 100% tax-deductible, by the way). We appreciate every donation, in any amount and at any time, but we think it only prudent to take advantage of the s-t-r-et-c-h funds available during “Raise the Region”, and of course one never knows when we will get lucky and
win one of the prizes.
Any amount can go towards anything that we do, and feel free to tell us when you donate which of our programs you feel the strongest about. Whatever you choose to give, you can have 100% confidence that we will put it to good use, bringing the arts to all communities throughout our region. Your support ensures that #XMarksTheArts.