Great Canadian Giving Challenge: Donate to a local charity and enter for them to win cash

Jun 2, 2020 | 11:04 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Every registered charity in Canada is part of this year’s Great Canadian Giving Challenge.

VP of Partnerships with CanadaHelps Lys Hugessen explains how their unique fundraiser works.

“If you make a donation to any Canadian Charity, every dollar that you donate is a ballot for that charity to win the prize of $20,000. Canada Helps, this year, is celebrating our 20th anniversary and we’ve raised the prize to $20,000.”

The idea is that, even if your local charity of choice does not win the cash prize, they do win in a way because people will have been encouraged to make donations to them.

This is the sixth annual Great Canadian Giving Challenge, but Hugessen believes this year’s event could not have come at a better time.

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“As we all know, there’s so much need because of COVID-19. Charities have cancelled events and they’ve had to change the way they do things, so there’s really a huge amount of need.”

“This is a great way for charities to try to recover a little bit from all of the hardship they’ve been suffering.”

She is encouraging non-profits across the country to engage with their communities to rally support.

In order to take part in the Great Canadian Giving Challenge, you can go to their website and search for a specific charity in your community.

All you need to do is make a minimum $3 donation to that organization, and every dollar given will count as one entry for the $20,000 cash prize.

The winner will be decided on Canada Day, July 1.

In 2019, the Great Canadian Giving Challenge saw over 109,000 Canadians give more than $14-million to 12,000 charities. CanadaHelps claims this was a 25 per cent year-over-year increase from the 2018 fundraiser.

by David Opinko