FYI Omaha Has a DGW

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April 30th, 2021

DGW, Final Result. Image Provided by ShareOmaha

OMAHA – Almost all of us have used abbreviations like “OMG” or “LOL” or, this good one, “TGIF.” This month here in Omaha, there was one abbreviation that identified what the people in Omaha and Council Bluffs are like: “DGW” or “Do Good Week.”

ShareOmaha, an organization that is dedicated to helping non-profit organizations, decided to take the lead of “DGW” and held an event that lasted six days. Lasting from April 19 through April 24, that event was a great responsibility.

Executive Director of ShareOmaha, Marjorie Mass, said ShareOmaha welcomed DGW.

“We’re excited to take on that mantle from the Omaha Community Foundation,” Maas said. “So it really wasn’t our decision to change, but it was our decision to take on that responsibility for the community.”

Earlier this month, The Omaha Community Foundation decided to end Omaha Gives. As part of a strategic plan, ShareOmaha took over Omaha Gives and improved an event that has always been respectable in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

Since 2013, the Omaha Community Foundation has raised more than $58 million for local non-for-profits.

Maas says the first DGW couldn’t have gone any better.

“The community wants to be able to engage with causes that matter to them, but they want to do it in a way, in any way they choose, is what we know at ShareOmaha,” Maas explained. “So we provided this week for people to have entry points to nonprofits that were cash related, that were kind of gift-related and through volunteerism, and so it was our way to try out how would the community respond to a holistic approach to philanthropy.”

To get an idea of what the first DGW was like, here are some of the outcomes. More than $2.5 million were collected in almost 18 thousand donations, and 25% of all donations came from new donors. On average, each donation was $143.

“We kicked off with Mission-Monday and our traffic was incredible. Tuesday was coined New Donor-Tuesday. Then Wish List-Wednesday was focused on people shopping Amazon wish lists or using those wish lists as suggestions for how to support limited local retailers and dropping off items,” Maas said. “The next day was Volun-Thursday. We saw that there were 912 new volunteer applications to nonprofits over the course of the week and that 1200 people volunteered during the week and then we had a crescendo for the week with Fund It-Friday.”

Maas says that comparing the Omaha Gives event and DGW is like comparing apples to oranges because the approach now is multi-faceted and lasted a week, compared to Omaha Gives which was only one day. She also believes DGW will only get better in the years to come.

“We can’t wait to really hear from our non-profit members regarding what would make this even better,” Maas said.

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