February 2020 — Who doesn’t love a goodie? This year JazzArts Charlotte got an unexpected goodie! A SHARE Charlotte Goodie Award, that is.

The Goodie Awards were created by SHARE Charlotte in 2017 as a way to playfully recognize outstanding accomplishments by our nonprofit partners. To the community, SHARE Charlotte is a local one-stop-shop for the community to find ways to plug in and make an impact. To its hundreds of participating local nonprofits like JazzArts Charlotte, SHARE Charlotte provides a platform and resource that can add a megaphone to our individual efforts.

Every year, SHARE organizes several community-wide giving campaigns that their partners can plug into. In the summer, SHARE encourages Charlotte to “Shop for GOOD” from hundreds of local nonprofits’ Amazon Wish Lists. In December, SHARE Charlotte is the official platform for #GivingTuesdayCLT.

In line with a summer Back-To-School theme, JazzArts Charlotte paired the wish list campaign with our need to launch the Pre-K WeBop Jazz Program, seeking toys, school materials, and administrative resources. Thanks to the holiday “giving good” momentum of #GivingTuesdayCLT, JazzArts Charlotte was able to arrange a matching gift offer for the Sponsor A Student initiative. The community (you!) showed up big, buying 70 items from the wish list and donating $10,000, all to support our community’s most valuable assets – students.

“With the limited resource of a nonprofit, we couldn’t have done it without the help of SHARE Charlotte.” Says a grateful Rebecka Nelli, Marketing Director of JazzArts Charlotte. “The website platform, social media tools, events, and media attention magnified our own efforts to generate awareness and excitement tenfold or more.”

“There are so many awesome SHARE Charlotte nonprofit partners who run their programming with a very lean staff and it is a privilege to get to highlight their work. The resources they provide and the impact they are having in our city is priceless.” highlights Julie Campbell, Nonprofit Partnership Director, SHARE Charlotte.

We were excited to be among a list of other deserving Goodie Award winners, including Apparo, Harvey B Gantt, Ronald McDonald House, and more. “Every nonprofit in the room is doing something really important in our community, filling so many important gaps,” says Rebecka.

The real recognition, however, goes to you – the donors and contributors of all that JazzArts Charlotte does. Your support is critical to meeting our mission. JazzArts Charlotte was blown away by the generous contributions, incremental gifts for those who have contributed before, and an exciting group of folks who are participating with JazzArts Charlotte for the first time.

It was an honor to be part of, and demonstration of how much we can accomplish, working together.