In 2024, we sat down with the anonymous sponsor of our Million Dollar Match to find out why they give back to our community through Give Miami Day, and why they choose to do so through a Million Dollar Match. Since 2022, all organizations participating in Give Miami Day are awarded up to an additional $1,000 through the match.
This interview was originally published in October 2024.
Q: This is the third year that you’ve made the Million-Dollar Match possible on Give Miami Day. What initially inspired you to fund this initiative, and what has kept you coming back?
A: We’re thrilled to three-peat as sponsors of the million-dollar match!
Our inspiration started with a spur-of-the-moment gift to the Give Miami Day Bonus Pool back in 2021, during the very final hour of the day. We had dollars that we wanted to give but we weren’t sure where. We thought it would be both easy and fun to amplify the gifts of all Give Miami Day donors—plus it was nearly midnight and we were running out of time! So, we logged in and entered a gift of $100,000 to the General Bonus Pool, to be divided among all charities in proportion to their received donations. It was the largest single donation we’d ever made and a large chunk of the total Bonus Pool funding that year, but we didn’t really think too much of it, or expect to hear anything back, or for it to drive our future gifting. Soon after the event, we received a very thoughtful and kind email from Rebecca, the head of the Miami Foundation, that helped us to see how special and unique the gift was.
Overall, we felt a greater connection and sense of purpose from this gift than any other that we’d made previously. We felt connected to the entire Miami community—connected to tens of thousands of donors whose donations we’d helped amplify, to the thousand local organizations that would benefit, to the event host in the Miami Foundation, and to the annual event and community movement of Give Miami Day. It felt great and we knew we’d be back.