Community Corner

UPDATED: Northfield Nonprofits See Results on Give to the Max Day

Here's an updated look at Northfield-area nonprofits for Give to the Max Day.

UPDATED: 2 p.m. Friday

Once again, Northfield made out like a bandit.

Thursday's annual Give to the Max Day saw thousands of donors hand over their hard-earned money to support area nonprofits. 

Find out what's happening in Northfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

For the third straight year, St. Olaf College was the top college/university for donations. More than 1,300 people donated $233,351 to St. Olaf. The top spot garnered a $12,500 bonus for the college.

"We are deeply thankful to the alumni, parents, and friends who made this happen," said Tracy Fossum, director of the St. Olaf Fund. "Their enthusiastic generosity helps provide the margin of excellence that distinguishes the St. Olaf experience from the rest."

Find out what's happening in Northfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Rice County Habitat for Humanity raised nearly $18,000 on the backs of 41 donors and Prairie's Edge Humane Society raised $9,100.

Sandy Vesledahl with PEHS said that went above and beyond the group's goal of $6,000. She said PEHS received donations from Las Vegas, Missouri and as far as Austrailia. Prairie's Edge held its annual Spay-ghetti dinner Thursday night at the Eagles Club and received attention through giveMN's (which runs GTMD) live broadcast to help push them to their total. The power of the web played a role, too, Vesledahl said.

"Social media works and we were all over it yesterday," she told Patch. "We are already planning our strategy for next year!"

Northfield received some statewide "Golden Tickets," which is an hourly drawing that rewards select nonprofits with a bonus $1,000 based on a random drawing of donors in that given hour. St. Olaf College and Prairie Creek Community School both received the bonus.

The Cannon River STEM School in Faribault received the $10,000 super-size K-12 Golden Ticket.

Organization Donors Money Raised St. Olaf College 1,303 $233,351.01 Carleton College 34 $6,830 Rice County Habitat for Humanity 41 $17,995 Rice County Historical Society 12 $660 Prairie's Edge Humane Society 150 $9,100 Prairie Creek Community School 63 $6,680 Northfield Arts Guild 48 $6,335 Northfield Area Family YMCA 31 $2,545 Northfield Area Foundation 1 $10 Northfield Area United Way 25 $4,640 Northfield Area Veterans Memorial Fund 1 $50 Northfield Citizens Online 1 $20 Northfield Day Care 15 $1,425 Northfield Downtown Development Corp. 15 $505 Northfield Fine Arts Booster 13 $770 Northfield Healthy Community Initiative 53 $5,350 Northfield Historical Society 46 $3,100 Northfield Montessori 22 $890 Northfield Nursery School 4 $175 Northfield Public School District 19 $985 Northfield Retirement Community 11 $2,750 Northfield Senior Center 18 $1,660 Northfield Union of Youth 56 $4,591 Northfield Youth Choirs 22 $1,345 Northfield Area Family Service Center 9 $1,135 Nerstrand Elementary School 47 $3,095 Save the Northfield Depot 12 $595 Arcadia Charter School 14 $1,110 Cannon River Watershed Partnership 75 $3,937.50 Cannon River STEM School 41 $2,300 Cannon Valley Elder Collegium 1 $50 Community Action Center of Northfield 72 $11,153 Friends and Foundation of the Northfield
Public Library  69 $4,733 Friends of Way Park 28 $1,785 HOPE Center 42 $2,355

Northfield nonprofits were also eligible for Northfield-only Golden Tickets through Northfield GIVES, a collaborative effort among nonprofits and spearheaded by 5th Bridge. The money was donated from area businesses, organizations and individuals.

Here are the results of the two drawings.

First drawing:

  • The $250 Golden Ticket, sponsored by Cannon Valley Veterinary Clinic, will go to Rice County Habitat for Humanity thanks to the donation by Mary Albright of Minneapolis.
  • $500 Golden Ticket, sponsored by the Northfield Area Foundation, will go to the Friends of Northfield Library thanks to the donation by Michelle Reese of Northfield
  • A $500 Golden Ticket, sponsored by College City Beverage, will go to Laura Baker Services Association thanks to the donation by Cheryl Buck

Second drawing:

  • The first $500 Golden Ticket, sponsored by Holden Farms, goes to Hope Center as a result of adonation by Sari Abelson of Northfield.
  • The second $500 Golden Ticket, sponsored by Northfield Area Foundation, goes to the Northfield Union of Youth as a result of a donation by Melissa Haars of Northfield.
  • And the Grand Prize Golden Ticket of $1,000, sponsored by an anonymous donor, goes to (drumroll please) … Healthy Community Initiative, as a result of a donation by Richard Kleber of Northfield.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Northfield