County Fair Giving Campaign brings islanders together in support of 30 community projects

For the first time in three years, San Juan Islanders will get togeth­er in per­son next week for four days of com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­bra­tion, edu­ca­tion, and enter­tain­ment at the San Juan Coun­ty Fair. To help trans­late that com­mu­ni­ty spir­it into action in the weeks and months that fol­low, the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion is prepar­ing to launch its 2022 Coun­ty Fair Giv­ing Campaign.

In part­ner­ship with SJICF, 30 island non­prof­its will raise funds for a broad array of com­mu­ni­ty-focused projects dur­ing the four days of the Fair. This year’s projects address needs from all cor­ners of life on San Juan Island, includ­ing food secu­ri­ty, afford­able hous­ing, ani­mal wel­fare, com­mu­ni­ty health pro­grams, and high-wage job train­ing. They also seek to sup­port visu­al and per­form­ing arts pro­gram­ming, out­door recre­ation, com­mu­ni­ty gath­er­ing spaces, edu­ca­tion ini­tia­tives for youth and adults, con­ser­va­tion pro­grams, and the strength­en­ing of local food pro­duc­tion systems.

To ampli­fy each nonprofit’s fundrais­ing efforts and help ensure the suc­cess of their projects, the first $1,000 in dona­tions to every project dur­ing the cam­paign will be matched dol­lar-for-dol­lar by the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion. Each project is also eli­gi­ble for up to $2,500 in bonus grants award­ed by SJICF through­out the Fair. To max­i­mize the impact of islanders’ con­tri­bu­tions, SJICF will cov­er any dona­tion trans­ac­tion fees.

To be eli­gi­ble for match­ing funds and bonus grants, project dona­tions must be made dur­ing the four days of the Coun­ty Fair – Aug. 17–20. Donors can con­tribute in per­son at the SJICF booth in the Main Build­ing at the Fair­grounds, on the SJICF web­site, by phone to SJICF at 360–378-1001, or by mail­ing a check payable to SJICF (dat­ed between Aug. 17–20) with the name of the non­prof­it in the memo line to P.O. Box 1352, Fri­day Har­bor, WA 98250.

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion will grant all donat­ed funds, match­ing funds, and bonus grants direct­ly to par­tic­i­pat­ing non­prof­its fol­low­ing the Coun­ty Fair.

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