Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Maggie Munch, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Copper Country, talks with people during the Copper Shores Community Health Foundation’s inaugural Giving Tuesday event at the Copper Country Mall in 2023. This year’s event will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Dec. 3, the final day of the foundation’s eighth annual Giving Tuesday campaign.

HANCOCK — It’s Michael Babcock’s favorite time of the year, even if the people around him get a little annoyed.

Babcock, director of marketing and donor relations for Copper Shores Community Health Foundation, gets a push notification every time a new donation comes in for Giving Tuesday. When that happens, he tells everybody nearby.

They’ve already gotten an earful.

The campaign, now in its eighth year, has raised more than $3 million for nonprofits in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties that improve the health of the community.

Donations for the 2024 campaign opened Nov. 12 and will continue through the Tuesday after Thanksgiving — this year, Dec. 3.

More than $100,000 in donations have already come in, from more than 20 states, Babcock said.

“The response this year has been the best we’ve had yet early on, and it makes it a lot easier to be in the office when you know the community is supporting all these groups,” he said. “I know these groups, it means a lot for them too, because a lot of the work they do is very thankless. It’s the stuff you wouldn’t even necessarily know is happening unless you’re involved. But all those things are what makes our community a special place, because without them, there’d be a lot of people that are not getting what they need to thrive and having no opportunity to get those things.”

That money is going to a record number of places. People this year can donate to 50 causes — 45 local non-profits, as well as five foundation programs such as Copper Shores Meals on Wheels.

“There’s a lot of choices,” Babcock said. “There’s definitely donation opportunity for everybody, no matter what their passions are.”

Thirteen of the nonprofits are participating in Giving Tuesday for the first time. Those include the Copper Country Humane Society; Third Coast Diving, which helps people with disabilities to learn diving and even become certified diving instructors; and Oak House, a community housing program that gives people with mild to moderate developmental disabilities the opportunity to develop semi-independent living skills.

“It just reinvigorates our office a little bit to know that there’s nonprofits out there that are raising their hand, ready to ask for help, ready to be part of our community that we’re building around this movement,” Babcock said. “And so that’s really meaningful to see those come in and to learn what they do.”

The From the Ground Farmers Market Collective oversees farmers markets and educational programs in Calumet, Hancock and Houghton.

“Copper Shores has set a precedent of some really fantastic community engagement and outreach,” said Amanda Makela, co-manager of From the Ground. “Through their value in the farmer’s market, we were encouraged to participate to kind of give the community an easy way to support the market.”

The collective helps take the burden off of local cities and volunteers of organizing the market, Makela said. Unlike many farmers markets, From the Ground is also able to serve as a middleman with state and local food access programs such as Bridge cards, allowing shoppers to use those tokens directly with vendors, who are then reimbursed.

Any funding From the Ground gets will go towards helping support their year-round operations, including overhead and future events, Makela said. It will help get vendors their money in a timely fashion. Plans for the future include educational programming for food access programs, and farm school programs, Makela said — “all these things that create a more resilient community, a more food-secure community, so people know where to find fresh local food, how to pay for it, how to eat it.”

People interested in learning more about the causes can go to the Copper Country Mall on Giving Tuesday, where for the second year, the organizations will have booths set up where they share information about what they do.

“You can meet them, shake their hands and thank them for the work, which is something we should all do, because there’s so much thankless work that is done by these nonprofits,” Babcock said.

People can also make donations at the main Giving Tuesday booth, set up in the middle of the mall.

Anyone who can show they made a donation, or who makes a donation at the mall, will also be entered in a raffle for prizes.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. But early mallwalkers will be able to talk with Copper Shores representatives starting at 6 a.m.

The money people donate goes even further. All donations made between now and 11:59 p.m. Dec. 3 are boosted by the #GiveCopperCountry Amplification Fund.

It works the same way as previous years: Organizations earn a split of the fund proportional to how much money they receive through the annual campaign. What’s changed is the terminology. Copper Shores had previously called them matching funds, but found people were getting the wrong idea, Babcock said.

“Some people thought that once we hit $200,000 that no donations were being matched anymore, and it’s not that way at all,” he said. “Every single donation gets amplified, and we’re excited about that change internally. So far, there’s been a little confusion. But I think once people understand what it means to have their donation amplified, they’ve been more excited about it.”

This year Copper Shores is starting the fund with $200,000, and donors will have the opportunity to donate directly to that fund, or support any of the causes that are participating in this year’s campaign individually.

Donations to Giving Tuesday can be made in three ways.

Giving online at coppershores.org/givingtuesday.

Dropping donations off in person at Copper Shores Mission Support office, 400 Quincy Street by 4:30 p.m. Dec. 3. Cash or checks are accepted.

Mailing donations to Copper Shores. Checks must be postmarked on or by December 3, 2024. The address is 400 Quincy Street; P.O. Box 299; Hancock, MI 49930.