The Erie Community Foundation works to improve the quality of life in our region by evaluating and addressing community issues, by promoting responsible philanthropy and by connecting donors to the critical needs of the community.

Now and then new enterprises are launched that seem exactly in tune with the times. Nonprofit organizations are struggling mightily for resources now due to increased demand, coupled with the poor economy. Belt-tightening is the rule in every budget from governments down to households. Retailers are girding for lean holidays as people turn away from excess material giving and look to more of a bare necessities mode. Enter Celebration Donation!

Celebration Donation is the brainchild of Julie Rahner Hersch, an Erie native, and her colleague Sarah Hemendinger who she met while living in Texas. Conceived initially as an alternative to materialistic birthday parties for kids, Celebration Donation has grown into a website that combines party-planning tools and online invitations with online giving to charity in lieu of gifts. The website, www.celebrationdonation.org. is newly launched and has the capacity to be an event organizing and charity giving tool for nonprofits everywhere, not just in Erie. Over time, Julie and Sarah hope to expand the focus from birthday parties, holiday occasions, or anniversaries to all types of events including memorial giving, but for now they are happy to provide this vehicle for charitable giving and to introduce the important concepts of service and philanthropy to kids of all ages. Erie today.... the world tomorrow.