A local homeless shelter’s crowdfunding campaign is about to end and is a little over half way to the goal.
With three days left on its two-month Indiegogo campaign, Grace Marketplace has raised $26,226 out of the $50,000 goal as of press time. All the money will go toward resources for the shelter, from providing food in its cafeteria to upkeep and security of the facility.
Jon DeCarmine, director of operations for the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry, said the original budget for the shelter was written eight years ago for a smaller facility and does not support the shelter’s current 20,000-square-foot location. Since Grace opened in May, it has provided about 35,000 meals and 8,000 nights of shelter for its residents, and it plans to continue expanding services. This funding will help get Grace off the ground so it can apply for grants later on, he said.
Mark Sexton, the Communications and Legislative Affairs director for Alachua County and a campaign donor, said he encourages people to donate to the shelter.
“There are a lot of people that are one paycheck away from having issues themselves,” he said. “I think the Indiegogo campaign is a really good way for a lot of people to be productive about this issue even if you can only contribute a little.”
Grace has a flexible funding campaign, which means it does not have to meet its goal to receive the money.
For now, DeCarmine said the shelter needs about $560,000 a year to provide the basic necessities. For this fiscal year, the shelter was allocated $308,000 by both the city and the county. In December, the Gainesville City Commission and the Alachua County Commission each approved $125,840 to go toward funding Grace through September, the end of the fiscal year. The money was taken from maintenance and moved to operational funds.
“For a long time, we thought the key to fundraising was to find a $1 million donor,” DeCarmine said. “Through the Indiegogo, we found that there were so many other people who were willing to give what they could.”
Those who want to donate to the campaign can go to indiegogo.com/projects/grace-marketplace.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 2/6/2015 under the headline “Grace Marketplace Indiegogo ending"]
Jon DeCarmine, operations director for the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry, leads a group of visitors on a tour of the 25-acre facility during the shelter’s open house in 2014.
