taking part in an online frenzy of giving. united way of capital area will be leading an area involving nonprofits, companies, people who are determined to do a world of good right here in our world. the campaign is called do more 24. joining me this morning to talk about it are cheryl petty garnet executive director of ivy community charities. rosey united way capital area. scott sanders deputy director of

joseph's house. thank you for being here on "viewpoint." rosie, last year nonprofits gave more than a million dollars. what's your goal this year can you beat that? >> we sure hope so. your united way with national capital area, it's our way of basically giving back to the community and opening to engage traditional donors. no matter how big or small, it really can make a difference. it's about giving where you live here in this region and doing something about those passions you care about. >> every dollar matters. how many nonprofits are participating this year? >> this year a record number of 600 nonprofits. last year 560. this year we're already over 600. >> that's fantastic. so it's 24 hours of going online, nonprofit, clicking or donating to them. >> absolutely. it's an opportunity again where we provide technology powered by united way.

it's for any organization. you do not have to be affiliated with united way to be affiliated and do more. it literally goes full gamut whatever your passion is, there's going to be a nonprofit there to support and be able to really truly help them get over finish lines with the work they are doing in the community. >> scott, the work you do with joseph's house is very important work. you were the biggest recipient last year, $36,000 through do more 24. tell us what you do with homeless men and women suffering with hiv and aids. >> we welcome them home. we welcome about 30 folks a year. they come and live in the house anywhere from a couple weeks to a year. we surround them with love and strong medical care and really give them a sense to heal. sometimes that means feeling back in life, folks on hiv to get back on meds and return to

independent living. sometimes healing into death, spiritual and emotional support at the end of their lives. reconnecting with family, finding some peace after they die often after years of struggle. >> as you know more than 2.5% is living with hiv. that's nearly three times the rate defined by world health organization, generalized ep dem in. what kind of impact does that have on groups like yours. >> a big demand for service. d.c. a lot of progress in terms of helping people learn they are in effected and get on treatment. the real challenge we see is folks have to stay on treatment nor 10, 20 30, 40 years. so it's a lifetime of being on treatment. the real cllening is supporting people as they stay on treatment years and years of that means having a place to live necessities, all the basic things are important to help people stay in care. the real challenge is helping people who are infected that

don't know their status and supporting them for the years it takes. that's a lot of mental health. there's still a lot of stieg nagmastigma. we see people depressed. >> kids going to college, part of what you do? >> that's what we do prince george's located in soot land, maryland. a tutoring program for middle school girls. at that age they have issues. we only focus on middle school girls. career and college preparation for high school students. we also have parent component, because we don't like the parents who drop their kids off. we want them to be engaged as well. we have a parents on track program is what we actually call it. then those students who are willing and complete the scholarship application we offer them the opportunity to

receive scholarships as well. one of our other activities is a shoe bank so we provide shoes to needy students and parents and prince george's county based on our partnership with the department of social services. >> pretty comprehensive service. >> very comprehensive yes. >> continue our discussion about do more 24 and tell you what you can do as we continue the discussion on "viewpoint." stay with us.

welcome back to "viewpoint." one of the great things about this 24 hour effort, it allows you, the doern to challenge the funds you'd like to donate to nonprofit and the causes important to you. rosie, what are the most important causes and what are the needs this year. >> i think you'll find education

is always number one. as the united way looks across the region, d.c. and virginia, education drives you us to the forefront. we've seen huge issues regarding health care. now because of workforce issues, we've seen an increase in needs around food. people who are food insecure families food insecure. food pantries and the like have increased needs because there are so many more families that traditionally have not thought of course, food pantries. now we're dependent on that to make the family get through the month, if you will. >> family that slipped out of the middle class. >> absolutely. >> and struggling in areas where they weren't struggling before. >> now the decisions that have to be made the choices families have to make between do i pay the mortgage or get the prescription filled. do i do the mortgage or do the grocery shopping. now what you'll find is many food pantries around the area

are serving families traditionally they would not have seen but before having this opportunity, they can close the gap. >> you're still feeling residual effects of recent government cutbacks, grant cutbacks. >> many of the nonprofits, especially those heavily dependent on federal grants or government grants even the local jurisdictions and those dollars shrink, because we've all heard of deficits all the time, those -- the needs are still there. there's a huge gap that still needs to be filled. that's why we started to do more 24 because it's an opportunity for us to rally as a region. this is one of the most affluent regions in the country. six of the top ten highest income counties are here in the washington metropolitan area but there is a lot of mean. here is an opportunity for us bring the donner community individuals who sometimes don't think what they can do as an individual is enough. when you're able to put it together with other donors an

other citizens around the region we've found we really are pretty generous and a pretty philanthropic region as well. we try to balance the influence we're proud of in the metropolitan area with the needs. sometimes we don't hear too much about. united way, it's our role to be what i call three things, a convener, collaborator and catalyst. convener meaning we bring people together. we want to ensure we bring the donner community with those services on the ground every day. we're a collaborator because we do nothing alone. it is always a partnership with others. we want to be catalytic. we want to bring innovative thought leadership solutions to the issues pressing our community and we want to try to bring that in partnership with others. >> scott you engage your donors all year long. in fact, both of you, you and cheryl. but how is engaging in this way with this 24-hour online giving marathon. how is that different from the way you deal with your donors the rest of the year?

>> use it two ways, engage our existing donner base notnor base. it's a great opportunity, gets them involved. they talk to friends and families and co-workers. we use it as a time for them to speak about why they are involved with joseph's house and issues and their voice speaking to friends and family are so credit incidental. we finds it's a great time of year. because it's so focused in one day, something they can do concretely. a way to use new donors. one way we realize, so many people moving into d.c. who don't know about the nonprofit community or what we do at joseph's house. so we take the chance to go out this weekend. yesterday we were out farmers market. today at the bloomingdale's farmers market. we go out and talk to folks about what we're doing and encourage them to support do more 24. there's something we can do this week to support us. >> so yours is a million dollar organization. last year you were the biggest recipient with $36,000 through

the 24 hour do more 24 campaign. how do you spend those funds and how did you specifically targ them? >> we use them for basic program operating expenses. we do get some federal grants. in the past years they have been cut back. as needs grow, we're seeing less federal resources. this is a great way to supplement those cuts we saw. it doesn't do anything new, goes to keeping food on the table. >> the basics. >> cheryl garnett, your annual budget is smaller, $157,000 a year. do more effort, do more 24 effort last year was a game changer for you. >> absolutely. we had conduct add strategic planning effort looking at the fundraising activities we had been doing for the past 14 years and found that for the most part the ticketed events really weren't giving us return on investment that we really needed. we're making a lot of money. good money, i suppose, $40 to

$60,000. we're spending a lot of that money just to have 20 or $10,000 to come as our net. we looked across all of the fundraising efforts we were doing and we found online giving campaign do more 24, was one of two of our efforts where we really did meet our return on investment. we decided through our strategic planning process rather than have four or five fundraisers through the year, we're only going to do two. one is do more 24 that's our first one, and 5k walk in the fall. it helped us to really kind of consolidate the work we had been doing. also to focus talked about new people. to focus on new people. we planned ahead. it's a fun day for us. we start in the morning with a breakfast for senior citizens because we want them to participate in this process as well. sometimes they may not understand the technology, so we have a breakfast. they come they bring their credit cards, and they donate to our efforts.

they understand also what it is we're about. so they are willing to make that donation. then we have a game activity during the day. then in the afternoon we're partnering with one of the restaurants to have a happy hour, so we bring in new people through that partnership as well. we make it a fun time and pass out t-shirts. people just so engaged and so involved in this, it makes it worthwhile for us. >> it's a worthwhile effort. it takes place june 4th. we'll tell you more about do more 24 when we come back.

there are a lot of channels on your tv but only so many you want to watch what if you could pay for the types of channels you want and not the ones you don't now, fios brings you a totally new way to customize your tv. starting at $74.99 per month with no annual contract. get custom tv, including internet and phone. price guaranteed for two years. or from now until june 8th get a $400 visa prepaid card when you sign a two-year agreement. go to getfios.com. cable just gives you channels. fios gives you choice. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v

welcome back as we continue our discussion about do more 24. rosie, what is the average amount your charities collect during during? what's the average amount?

>> it varies. there's probably 20 to 30 charities in a tiered program that pretty much raise $10,000 or more. it can be pretty significant. what we found also, the average donor, again, for everyone, average donation is $66 when you think about it. that's a lot of individuals coming together in this region to support these particular issues. we do have other ways to raise funds. again, not just go online. we have events. there is restaurants that are participating. so if you happen to be having lunch and mention do more 24 in one of our participating restaurants a portion of those proceeds go to the program. many of our partners that we've featured here today have partnerships with other organizations for different activities going on that day as well. this is really grassroots. it is the average every day donner can do something for his or her community. >> that's sort of the best way to do it isn't it? in terms of sustaining the

effort and connection between the donors and nonprofit? >> absolutely. we've found many donors have connected with an organization or issue or geographic set in the region. so if i want to do something in northern virginia, then i can find something there that fits my passion. it can be an organization, an issue or it can be a part of the region. what we found is many of the connections that are made, they are now volunteers at these organizations because now they found something that they, too, can feel like they can do more than just one day a year. >> a connection is the name of the game. >> business partnerships. that's been helpful, something we haven't done before. first year three, this year five. reached out to adams morgan businesses restaurants, cafes. now they help us with do more 24. it's a great way to know area businesses and make them partners. they love the cause and like being involved in their neighborhood we find. it's a great way, a great hook

for them to learn about us and do something very specific. >> cheryl, you talked about fun earlier. >> absolutely. >> does it that include prizes? >> it does include prizes incentives. we try to tell everyone if you help us during a certain hour we can win more prizes and money to support activities we're supporting, the activity we're engaged in. so that's really helped a lot, too. you mentioned restaurants. we'll be working with the restaurant as well this year. we worked with the restaurant last year. a family-owned restaurant. this year a different restaurant. so it's an opportunity for businesses. there's a first time for both of these businesses to participate in an effort like this. so they are excited about it too. their clientele can benefit as well. we do make it as much fun as we possibly can. >> rosie there's a bonus for charities that raise the most? >> absolutely. this is a 24-hour period of giving. we literally are looking from

midnight on june 4th. we have money united way putting up for different times during the 24-hour period from midnight to 2:00 a.m., 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. those with donors have an opportunity. we set aside to really and truly give a boost to those homad a true difference getting the word out around here. >> as scott and cheryl said, it's not only about the money. >> absolutely not. this is an opportunity to really, truly see ourselves as not so much benefactors but also good stewards of this community. we live in an area where we have so much to be thankful for. we don't always focus on that this is an opportunity for us to connect and be a region that

really and truly cares about those that are less fortunate those who may have had a little bit of a hard time but also to know we have a responsibility for our fellow man. so what we can do is bring our whole selves to this work, not just any one organization but a particular issue. again look across the region we recognize that you can't survive. you cannot really be successful if only maryland is. we don't care about what happens in the district or northern virginia and vice versa. what we've been able to do is bring together the entire region around an issue we all care about because some challenges are universal. how we look and how we try to solve them could be tayloriloredtailored. something we generally care about. everything from do i children deserve to have a fair start in education, absolutely. no one disagrees with that. when it comes to affordable housing, everyone afford a safe

place to lay their head. everyone agrees with that. health care. there's not a lot of division there. there's a lot of uniform way of looking at things. there's a lot of ways we can truly come together. what we found is energy around this work the united way team is totally excited around this work. this is our third year doing it. i have the privilege of serving with them a community that cares so deeply about its people and about its issues. >> makes all the difference. do more 24, june 4th. we'll have a few final comments when we come back.

♪ (music throughout) ♪ sfx: (smash) sfx: (roar) ♪ sfx: (roar) sfx: (engine roars)

severaler vents. >> at the farmers market with home made cookies and dog treats. also on tuesday. the day of we'll be on 18th

street and that night at the mellow mushroom. we find talking to people is great. have a great time. drink coffee t-shirts. >> they see you find out who you are and what you're doing. >> exactly. our events are on the day, on june 4th. so at our center, we're inviting everyone to come in. our senior citizens to participate. we'll entertain them and have games in the afternoon and go to a restaurant partner restaurant with happy hour with our younger crowd i suppose you might say. >> fun for everyone. >> rozzie online days have been successful. not just here but around the country. >> they have. my college at united way in dallas have successful giving days where they raise sometimes $20 million over that 24-hour period of time.

many major metropolitan tice are doing some type of giving day of service, day on if you will. we believe, if you will three different states if you will this is an opportunity for us to really and truly look at the region. they have been successful and we think our model is unique as well. >> do more 24 begins just after midnight june 4th and continues until just before midnight. it is truly a 24 hour day of giving. we want everyone to go out and think about themselves in terms of what they can do. hit that website do more 24.org. look at events things going on literally across the region. we'll have some partners as well. thank you all so much for being what us on "viewpoint" this morning. to get more information about do more 24 log ont the website you see on the screen. i'm pat lawson muse. thank you for being with us. stay with us for "news 4 today."

vice president joe biden's son died. we take a look at the former attorney general for delaware. >> time running out, some nsa spy programs unless senate takes action. they will meet in a rare sunday session. news shaping up this sunday. good morning, i'm adam tuss. >> i'm angie goff. the very last day of may. >> can you believe it? >> feeling like jun july and august with the precipitation out there. >> don't think for a minute