The Peru Gazette

December 23, 2021—The Stewart’s Holiday Match Program is showing the true spirit of the holidays with giving; customer donations have reached over $871,000 through Wednesday, December 22nd. That’s over $1.7 million with the Stewart’s match so far, and there’s just 3 days left to collect!

These donations stay local and support local nonprofits.  Funding reaches libraries, arts programming and many school programs just to name a few.

Each week, a different Holiday Match recipient is highlighted, this week, we are featuring Things of My Very Own. This non-profit organization provides crisis intervention services to children impacted by extensive abuse or neglect. The organization also helps children at risk of a child protective services intervention due to lack of necessities. Things of My Very Own has helped children in 11 counties across New York’s Capital Region and surrounding areas.

The Stewart’s Holiday Match Program has no administrative fees and donates 100% of donations received to charities in their market areas. Stewart’s Shops matches each donation penny for penny and dollar for dollar and has been doing so for the past 35 years, raising over $32 million for local charities.

While many other fundraising efforts spend 30% or more on overhead expenses, Stewart’s has no administrative fees and covers all the expenses. This means 100% goes to local nonprofits!

Holiday Match funds are collected from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day in each of the 354 shops. Local children’s organizations are encouraged to apply for funding here. The deadline for submission is January 31, 2022. All groups applying must be locally based, benefit children under 18, and be a qualified, charitable 501c3 organization. A listing of all the local organizations that received funds last season is available online.