Great Fish Challenge Outpaces Last Year at the Midway Mark
Donations are up 16% over this time last year, but Whitefish Community Foundation says the biggest surge in giving still lies ahead in the campaign's final week.
By Tristan Scott
A record number of local nonprofits are two weeks into the Great Fish Community Challenge, and Flathead Valley donors are giving at a faster clip than they were at this point a year ago. And yet, according to the Whitefish Community Foundation (WCF), the real surge in giving is still to come.
As of Aug. 25, donors have given just over $2 million, up from $1.76 million raised at this same point last year — a roughly 16% increase. The number of individual donations is up a similar amount, from 3,268 to 3,764, and the donor pool has grown from 1,191 to 1,272 people, a 6.8% increase. Those donors are also coming back more often: an average of 2.96 donations per donor so far, up from 2.74 a year ago.
It’s a strong pace, but Whitefish Community Foundation President/CEO Alan Davis said not to read too much into the midpoint numbers.
“It’s human nature to wait,” Davis said. “Every year since we started this challenge, more than half of the total raised has come in during the final week. Last year, that was more than $3 million in the last week alone.”
Last year’s campaign finished with $6.7 million raised by 85 nonprofits, before Whitefish Community Foundation’s match brought the total to $8.1 million, a 21% increase over 2024. This year, Davis said he hopes to top that $8.1 million mark.
Despite economic headwinds nationally, Davis said the early numbers have been a pleasant surprise.
“We’re feeling really good about it,” he said. “What we’re seeing anecdotally is that people are giving more, which is counterintuitive given the economy and everything else going on in the world.”
Davis pointed to two giving trends behind the momentum: more donors using IRA distributions, and more donors giving appreciated stock.
Retirees with a traditional, tax-deferred IRA can direct a portion of it straight to a nonprofit as a qualified charitable distribution, avoiding income tax on the withdrawal even as the nonprofit receives the full amount. The strategy has become especially popular among donors with tax-deferred accounts who face required minimum distributions and don’t need, or want, the extra income, Davis said.
Local financial advisers have noticed the same uptick, he added.
Stock donations are up too, Davis said, as the market has climbed. Giving appreciated stock directly to a nonprofit — rather than selling it and donating the cash — lets donors skip the capital gains tax altogether. “It’s better to give the thing straight to the charity than to sell it first,” he said.
The Great Fish Challenge, Davis said, is designed to make all of that simple: one check, split among as many participating nonprofits as a donor chooses, with each nonprofit receiving 100% of the gift.
This year’s challenge, which kicked off Aug. 11 at Glacier Bank Park, includes 89 nonprofits, six of them first-time participants: Bear Grass Performing Arts, Columbia Falls Academic Foundation, Girls on the Run Western Montana, Glacier Aquatic Club, Whitefish Community School, and the Whitefish Songwriter Festival.
The match that anchors the challenge comes primarily from Whitefish Community Foundation’s Circle of Giving — donors who give $5,000 or more annually to support the organization’s grant programs — along with anyone who gives directly to the Great Fish Match Fund, which benefits every participating nonprofit. Several sponsors have already made significant gifts this year, and WCF is aiming to grow the Circle of Giving to 300 donors this year; if it hits that mark, one donor has pledged an additional $300,000. The final match amount won’t be known until Circle of Giving fundraising wraps up.
Giving continues through 5 p.m. Sept. 11, and the final tally, match included, will be unveiled at the Great Fish Awards on Oct. 22 at Wachholz College Center.