Inside the Crawford Heritage Community Foundation in Meadville, staff are ready for Crawford County to give.

Crawford Gives is here. It’s the foundation's annual period of giving.

“The goal is to raise money for the participating worthy causes from hopefully thousands of local generous people,” said the foundation’s executive director, Christian Maher. 

They started accepting donations on Tuesday. Just over $330 thousand was raised by late morning. They’ll accept donations until Friday at midnight.

“This is like the Amazon of charitable giving. You just select the organizations that you like, apply a dollar figure to them, and then check out,” he said. 

They’re hoping to hit one million dollars. That’s the same goal they just missed last year.

“We were so very close,” he said. “We were, I think, shy by about $9 thousand when all of the dust settled.”

That money will go to local non-profits, like the French Creek Valley Conservancy. 

They maintain the French Creek watershed.

The money they get from Crawford Gives will be used for their educational programs.

“We visit many, many schools and talk about things like conservation, watershed, water quality, said education and outreach coordinator Kaitlyn Carlson.

Without Crawford Gives, she said, they might not be able to do as much.

Maher hopes people will donate to build up nonprofits in Crawford County.

If they do, he said, their data will be safe.

“It’s just as risky as making a gift on Amazon,” he said. “Which is to say, not very risky.”

More information about how to donate is available here.