The Daily Tell

Even in the face of the city’s deep recession woes caused by the decline of the automotive industry, Detroit’s citizens are still passionately committed to giving back to their community.

In just 11 hours, donors raised $3.75 million in support of 75 arts and cultural organizations in southeast Michigan, through the Community Foundation Challenge – Arts & Culture.

The challenge, which was sponsored by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan, featured matching contributions for all donations up to the $1 million mark, provided by the Community Foundation.

“This far exceeded our expectations,” said Mariam Noland, president of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. “This was a groundbreaking experiment.”

When the challenge opened at 10 a.m. on the Community Foundation’s website, more than 10,000 potential donors signed on to the site to donate, causing an outage in service.

As an apology to potential donors who were frustrated by this technical disruption, the foundation pledged another $250,000 in matching donations.

After the site was up and running, the $1 million of matching contributions was exhausted within six hours, while the additional $250,000 was depleted in another three hours.

Even without the matching contributions, people continued donating, raising an additional $1.25 million before the end of the day.

“The response to the challenge proves how much our community values arts and culture,” said Maud Lyon, executive director of the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan. “Regardless of whether they like music, theater, museums, history, science or nature, these donors have stepped up to support these nonprofits in these challenging times.”

Although there will be no more matching contributions, interested donors can still participate in the challenge through the Community Foundation website until August 31.