Mankato Salvation Army Hosting Match Events

 The Red Kettle initiative is critical to The Salvation Army’s $525,000 holiday fundraising campaign, as nearly 80% of the organization’s fundraising occurs in the last three months of the year. These funds are needed to provide struggling families with meals, emergency shelter, and emergency financial assistance throughout the year.

Monday, December 19, is the final Monday of this year’s bell-ringing campaign as Christmas Eve will be the last day for ringing those bells.  The Salvation Army reports it is at under 40% of the massive goal, still being down over $50,000 from this point in collections from the previous season.  The Salvation Army red kettles continue to accept cash/coin/check, but also offer many safe and easy digital payment options, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, PayPal, QR code scanning or text “KatoCares” to 24365 – donors may also deliver checks or cash in person to 700 S Riverfront Dr. for this campaign.

Corporate donors are inspiring something unique for the community this year.  The first event will be called “Mega Monday Mania.”  The details are simple: raise $30,000 in ONE DAY through every avenue of giving (see above).  Corporate donors have already given this amount and would love to see the community match their efforts this way.  The second event will be called, “Triple Twenty Tuesday.”  The corporate donors, along with some anonymous donations, for this event have given close to $21,000 for it. 1,050 twenty-dollar bills in the kettles would match the corporate donors for Tuesday’s event.

“This is a really unique approach” said Captain Andy Wheeler, one of the Corps Officers in Mankato. “We would love to have full coverage at all 12 of our kettle location throughout the day on Monday and Tuesday, to honor the concepts and push us closer to our massive goal.  Imagine the public stepping up to match the corporate donors’ gifts – that would be so special.”

Salvation Army red kettles continue to accept cash, but also offer many safe and easy digital payment options, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, PayPal, QR code scanning or text “KatoCares” to 24365.

Individuals, families, churches, businesses, neighborhood associations, and others can register to ring at www.registertoring.com