Adirondack region nonprofits are finding success on Adirondack Foundation’s new crowdfunding website, Adirondack Gives.  As of Feb. 13, four organizations-the Adirondack Council, the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society, Dewey Mountain Friends and the Lake Placid Center for the Arts-have reached their respective goals. Several other campaigns have surpassed the minimum of $250 to receive funding with time to spare.  To date, 15 campaigns have collectively raised more than $4,300 on Adirondack Gives.

The Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society successfully raised $1,000 in 60 days to help pay for the preservation of its glass plate negative collection. The historical society took ownership of the 10,000-piece collection in 2011, and has been working to preserve the negatives to museum standards since.  The glass plates depict life in Lake Placid from the early 1800s to the mids-1900s.  The historical society will use the $1,000 it raised to bolster a campaign to raise $5,000 to match a challenge grant it received last fall specifically for preservation of the glass plate collection.

The Adirondack Council reached and surpassed its goal weeks before its 60 days were up. The $560 raised on Adirondack Gives will help defray the costs associated with a new conservation mapping field station. The money will go toward the purchase of a laptop computer, geographic information systems (GIS) software, GIS data sets, and a hand-held global positioning system (GPS).

Both the Adirondack Council and the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society received donations ranging from $1 to $250.

The LPCA’s campaign to raise $350 for new wireless microphones reached its goal with time to spare. The project is still live and accepting donations for two more weeks. Dewey Mountain Friends, whose fiscal sponsor is the Saranac Lake Rotary Foundation, successfully reached its goal of $1,000 in just six days and has since increased its goal to $2,500.

Other current campaigns on Adirondack Gives include:

• Lake Placid Sinfonietta, raising $750 to offset costs associated with its summer concert series
• Biodiversity Research Institute’s Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation, raising $250 to digitize historical slides and footage by Adirondack nature photographer Kip Taylor
• Rebuilding Together Saratoga County, raising $750 for home safety kits
• Wiawaka Holiday House, raising $1,000 for its Fuller Respite Scholarship Fund
• Lake Placid Olympic Museum, raising $1,000 to bring a Paralympic Games photo exhibition to Lake Placid
• St. Lawrence County Arts Council, raising $650 to purchase a new pottery wheel for its community classes
• Lake Placid Elementary School, raising $1,000 for a third grade iPad lab
• Pendragon Theatre, raising $1,000 to offset costs associated with its Page to Stage Student Outreach project
• The Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, raising $1,000 to purchase game cameras to track wildlife
• The Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts, raising $500 to help purchase a laptop for its traveling programs

There is no fee to use Adirondack Gives. Campaigns must raise a minimum of $250 to receive funding, in accordance with Adirondack Foundation’s grantmaking policies. First-time campaigns are limited to $1,000 in order to increase the likelihood of success. Groups that are not federally-recognized 501(c)3 organizations may use the website as long as they use a fiscal sponsor.

To start a campaign or make a gift, visit www.adirondackgives.org. For more information, or if you have any questions about the site, contact Adirondack Foundation Communications Manager Chris Morris at (518) 523-9904 or chris@generousact.org.