If you’re planning to give to one of your favorite local nonprofits this year, it’s going to be even easier this Wednesday, May 15th. That’s the date for The Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG, a one-day, online charitable giving event to inspire people to give to local nonprofit organizations who help make up the tapestry of our community.

All day Wednesday each credit card donation made to any of the 1,400+ nonprofit organizations profiled on The Seattle Foundation’s website will receive a prorated portion of the matching funds “stretch” pool. The total amount of the stretch pool depends on the size of the stretch pool and how much is raised in total donations on GiveBIG day.

The list of participating Queen Anne nonprofits includes:

• Pacific Science Center
• Queen Anne Helpline
• Queen Anne Farmers Market
• Queen Anne High School Alumni Association
• Queen Anne Food Bank at Sacred Heart
• St. Anne School
• Seattle Center Foundation
• Seattle Children’s Museum
• Sound Theatre Company
• SIFF
• Theatre22

And, you can donate to many more nonprofits in the immediate Queen Anne/Seattle Center area, as well as Seattle-wide nonprofits (e.g. Seattle Public Library). Just check out the list of nonprofits and get ready to GiveBIG on Wednesday.

Northwest Harvest helps fight hunger in Seattle and across the state, providing millions of nutritious meals every year. Now through April 5th, you can donate non-perishable food to Northwest Harvest at the Queen Anne HomeStreet Bank – and those donations will stay in our community, helping Queen Anne neighbors in need.

Our local HomeStreet Bank branch is participating in Bankers Care – Lending a Hand in our Community, a program to collect non-perishable food and cash donations for Northwest Harvest. It’s a 3 week Spring Food Drive that directly benefits the community of the participating bank branch, in our case, Queen Anne.

It’s a tough time of year for our local food banks and organizations like Northwest Harvest – the need for food doesn’t stop when the holiday season ends. Stop by HomeStreet at 1835 Queen Anne Ave N to drop off your donations. The bank is open Monday-Friday, 9am-6pm, and Saturdays from 9am-2pm.

Watch your front door tomorrow, Monday, March 25th, for a flyer from the local Queen Anne Boy Scouts Troops – they’ll be distributing door hangers asking residents to donate food to fight hunger as part of the Scouting for Food drive. And, it’ll be easy to do – the Scouts will be back at your doorstep on Saturday, March 30th to pick up your donations.

The Scouts are especially interested in collecting donations of nutritious food, as many of those going hungry are children that need healthy food for proper development and growth. The most needed items are canned proteins, soups, vegetables, and fruits, as well as grains like pasta and rice. The Scouts also advise that hygiene products are also in high need. However, please avoid donating items in glass containers.

The Scouts partner with over 50 local food banks and the Scouting for Food drive collects more than 500,000 cans of food each year. Why now? The holidays are behind us, and the food banks are starting to run low – but the needs are still high. Last year, Queen Anne Scouts collected over 600 pounds of donations from Queen Anne residents.

If you receive a door hanger and would like to donate, just leave your donations in a visible location outside your front door or by the base of your mailbox by 10am on Saturday, March 30th.

In less than a month, the John Hay annual auction will grace the doors of the Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion. The April 6th auction is the school’s most important fundraiser, with up to 400 parents attending the live event each year plus an online auction that you can surf from the comfort of your home.

This funds from the auction help fund key programs that are no longer supported by the school district such as math and reading tutors, curriculum enhancements, art education, sports equipment and more – and the Queen Anne community helps drive the success of the auction. There are several ways you can get involved and help one of our local schools:

Donate/Procure Auction Items: The school is looking for more auction items, and any Queen Anne community member can help. Past donations have included dinners, arts/sports tickets, vacation rentals, professional services, cooking lessons, and more – you can get creative with this one, and donations are tax-deductible. Procurement forms are available online or outside the John Hay volunteer office.

Dessert Dash: Are you a baking master? The school needs about 40 desserts to fill the popular dessert dash table. You just need to make a dessert that feeds about 10 people and auction bidders get the chance to buy your dessert. If you’re interested in volunteering your baking expertise, contact Lynn Baker.

Wine Grab and Fine Wines: For the silent auction, the school is looking for both fine wines and wines in the $15-20 range as well. John Hay is partnering with McCarthy & Shiering for this fun event – you can stop by 2410 Queen Anne Ave N or call them at 206-282-8500 and they can pick out a great wine for you to donate to the auction.

RSVP:  The auction extravaganza is open to all Queen Anne community members. RSVP via email.

Online Bidding: Interested in participating via online bidding? Mark your calendars, the online auction through Bidding for Good opens March 26th.

You may be familiar with Northwest Center’s donation drop-off via the Big Blue Truck at Eat Local. They’re there every weekend 9am-5pm to take your clothing and household goods donations, and those donations help fund the non-profit, which serves children and adults with developmental disabilities. It’s also a local non-profit with a Queen Anne school, Northwest Center Kids at Queen Anne.

Well, you no longer have to wait for the weekend to donate gently used clothing to Northwest Center, as the organization has partnered with local Blue Sky Cleaners for clothing collection bins.

Blue Sky Cleaners is Seattle’s only toxin-free cleaning service, with a dedication to the environment via its emissions-free delivery vehicles and carbon neutral cleaning process – and it has a commitment to the community via the Northwest Center partnership. You can now drop off your clothing donations at barrels in each Blue Sky Cleaners location, including the one at 1420 Queen Ave. N.

So, next time you drop off your dry cleaning or miss the Big Blue Truck, you can take in your clothing donations to Blue Sky Cleaners and support Northwest Center and their mission of “promoting the rights and independence of infants, children, teens and adults with developmental disabilities.”

Remember the coat drives back during the holiday season? Well, winter lasts longer than the month of December, and there are still people in need of warm coats and sweaters. To help out local foster children in need, Queen Anne Elementary is running its 2nd Annual Coat and Sweater Drive this week – Monday, February 4th – Friday, February 8th.

This year the coat drive benefits Treehouse for Kids, a charity that “fills the gaps” for kids in foster care. Queen Anne Elementary will be accepting donations at both main entrances. Donations will help stock the Treehouse “Wearhouse”, a free store where foster kids can shop for clothes, shoes, school supplies, books, toys and other essentials that help them feel good and fit in.

Here’s how you can help:

• Buy one or more gifts for a foster child
• Donate “almost” new clothes (coats and sweaters), toys or books
• Drop off donations in the boxes at either QAE main entrance

You can also give online or mail a check donation– just put “Queen Anne Elementary” on the “Drive Host” line at check-out.

This Saturday, First Book Seattle will be wrapping holiday presents at Blue Highway Games from noon-4pm. Proceeds will benefit First Book Seattle, an all-volunteer organization that uses all proceeds to provide books to kids in King County. Help them out by bringing your holiday presents and donating to a worthy cause!

Blue Highway Games is hosting the wrapping event and according to their website, they’re hosting holiday wrapping fundraisers on weekends throughout December. They even provide the supplies – thank you, Blue Highway Games!

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has partnered with five local nonprofits to launch “The Give Effect” – a campaign to encourage residents to give back to the community and kick off the New Year with philanthropy. Throughout December, you can pick a giving card from the Gates Foundation’s Visitor Center’s Giving Tree. Each card has a wish from a local family in need, with 250 families’ wishes represented on the tree.

Giving cards can be picked up at the Visitor Center until December 22nd; unwrapped gifts should be dropped off at the Visitor Center no later than December 29th (note: December 18 is the preferred drop-off date).

According to Martha Choe, Chief Administrative Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:

To celebrate the community’s giving efforts, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will host the first-ever “Family Day: The Give Effect” at its Visitor Center on December 29 from 10:30am – 3:30pm. At the event, visitors will have the opportunity to participate in activities such as “making a plushy doll for a friend, playing online games that explore ways to give back or creating a cause bracelet and buttons that represent a global issue that needs to be solved.”

The Queen Anne location of Via Tribunali is currently running its Gioia di Bambini (Joy to the Kids) coat drive, and you can get a free pizza for donating to the cause. Via Tribunali has partnered with the Atlantic Street Center to collect coats for children, from newborns up to 18 year-olds. The restaurant is asking guests to bring in new or gently used coats for kids now through Wednesday December 12th – and in exchange, you’ll get a complimentary Margherita pizza.

We’re fortunate to have so many Seattle and Queen Anne businesses helping out during this holiday season. Thank you, Via Tribunali!

Every year the Queen Anne Helpline hosts a Holiday Party for low-income and special needs children, with Secret Santa gifts that rely on the community’s efforts. How does it work? Well, you may have seen Giving Trees at local businesses; you just take an angel tag from a tree, and it’ll let you know the key details about the recipient to help guide your gift-buying (e.g. gift for a 9-year old boy). Once you’re finished with your Secret Santa shopping, return the gift to the business by December 11th.

Your gifts help the Helpline provide holiday cheer to over 100 children every year. The Helpline Santa slides down the chimney at on December 15th to fill stockings with toys and clothes in time for the Santa party at 11am at the Queen Anne Lutheran Church.

This year, participating Upper Queen Anne merchants are A&J Meats & Seafood, Blue Highway Games, Five Corners Hardware, Key Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Umpqua Bank, and Home Street Bank – so stop by one of these businesses and pick an angel card up to help spread some holiday cheer!

St. Alphonsus Parish School is located in Ballard, but Queen Anne owes them a thank you for helping out the Queen Anne Food Bank this holiday season. Students from St. Alphonsus collected non-perishable food items throughout the month of November to donate to the Queen Anne Food Bank. The school chose to help out QAFB because it recently re-opened after closing its doors last Spring due to lack of support and the school wanted to make sure their donations went to local recipients.

The food drive began November 1st and ended at the school’s Thanksgiving Luncheon. The students’ total donations amounted to 1,520 food items delivered just in time for Thanksgiving meals.

Thank you, St. Alphonsus Parish School & Happy Thanksgiving!

The holiday season is upon us, and the Queen Anne Food Bank needs your help! The Food Bank is looking for local businesses, organizations and groups interested in running food and/or personal items drives. The Food Bank will work with you to get you up and running by helping with key steps of the planning process.

The process of organizing a food drive starts with bringing together a group of interested people, then deciding on dates to start and end the drive, as well as a date to deliver the food. You can request that the Food Bank make a flyer for you, or better yet, channel your inner artist and design one of your own.

The next step? Get the word out about your drive and what items you need people to donate. At this step in the process, Queen Anne View can help you – if you run a food/goods drive, post the info in the Forum, and a blog post further publicizing all local Queen Anne food drives will follow.

Once the drive starts, the majority of the work is over and you can reap the rewards of knowing you’ve helped those in need this holiday season and beyond. Plus, it’ll be a lot of fun – check out this picture from a “fill the truck” food drive this past July:

If you, your organization, or your business is interested in running a Food Bank drive, please get in touch with the Queen Anne Food Bank outreach coordinator Florence McCafferty at florence@qafb.org or 206.216.4102.