Causes, the Case Foundation and PARADE Publications today announced the winners of the 2009 America’s Giving Challenge!  Read the full press release or the excerpt below.

America’s Giving Challenge Inspires More than 105,000 Donations

In just 30 days, online fundraising challenge enables individuals to raise more than $2.1 million for their favorite causes and charities.

The 30-day national online competition launched October 7, 2009, with an announcement in PARADE magazine and ended on November 6, 2009. It enabled individuals to compete for $245,000 in award money for the causes that they care about, brought together thousands of people and encouraged more than 105,000 donations which helped to raise $2.1 million for nonprofit causes.

As part of the Challenge, participants competed for daily and overall cash awards based on the number of donations to their cause, not dollars raised. A total of $170,000 in awards, $150,000 funded by the Case Foundation and $20,000 funded by the Aspen Institute, was announced at Challenge launch, and during the last week of the challenge, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced an additional contribution of $75,000 in award money.

In addition to helping nonprofits raise money and attract new supporters, America’s Giving Challenge was designed to encourage individuals and nonprofits to experiment with new social media technologies and think about more strategic ways of leveraging social networking to engage supporters for their causes. By hosting the Challenge on its Facebook application, Causes provided individuals and nonprofits with new tools and methods for organizing at the grassroots level to maximize their impact and reach.

For the full article and a list of the America’s Giving Challenge winners, go to http://www.casefoundation.org/pressroom/releases/america’s-giving-challenge-inspires-more-105000-donations