OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — In Share Omaha's first year of Do Good Week, over $2.5 million was raised, almost 2,000 items were donated and over 2,800 hours were volunteered.
All of this was done in just one week. The impact that Do Good Week made exceeded the expectations of Share Omaha.
"We didn’t want to put a cap on the generosity honestly. We definitely had some internal aspirations of where we wanted to be but I’ll tell you, each and every one of those was surpassed. I will tell you also, with a first-year event, it’s hard to put metrics on what you don’t know," Marjorie Maas, executive director of share Omaha said.
Maas said they wanted the first-ever Do Good Week to showcase the many different ways community members can give back to the metro area — whether that's through cash donations, time, or items. She added that giving back can be a year-round thing and Do Good Week is a way to create long-lasting relationships between the community and local organizations.
As they look to the future, Share Omaha wants to take feedback from this year's event, learn what people missed from Omaha Gives and look at ways to make an even bigger difference.
"There were aspects of that past event that couldn’t be replicated with the way technology stands currently and so we are actively evaluating. Maybe there is something there that our community definitely missed. I’m actually really happy to say that with $2.55 million, we think that the number is going to grow from there. We want to see and, in our evaluation, figure out the best way the garner more support," Maas said.
