Photo provided to the Times Observer Adapting the Warren Christmas Sign to highlight Warren Gives was one of many ways the word spread for Warren Gives. A host of new records were set in the event, highlighted by the total surpassing $900,000 for the first time.

Warren Gave.

The annual day of online giving in Warren County set a host of records, including cresting $900,000 for the first time in its history.

The total? $936,952.

There were signs from the beginning of the day — May 15 — that the art of the possible might be shifting.

“(We) knew we were tracking well all through the day,” Mark King, executive director of the Community Foundation of Warren County, which coordinates Warren Gives. “We collect checks early.”

That check window showed a nearly $35,000 increase year over year.

That was a “big uptick out of the gate before we ever turned the website live,” King said. “That was a good indicator but you never know.”

The event crested $800,000 in combined giving and match dollars last year.

“This year, we were hoping to cross last year,” King said. “That’s always the goal. We’ve always done better every year. We didn’t just cross the mark, we blew through it.

“It was an amazing day.”

A host of records were broken — the dollars raised, the total number of donors, donations from 50 of 50 states for the first time, the record for the total raised by an organization, the number of organizations.

King said that “all of the organizations were really engaged and working hard this year,” he said.

He explained that the Community Foundation sets incentive prizes for the organizations each year and shifted the target there to bring in more out of state money and increase the number of donors.

The total amount of out-of-state money rose from $39,000 to over $68,000.

After observing a bit of a plateau on the number of unique donors, the number of individual donors rose this year by 292 to about 2,000 in total.

The incentive prizes bring some healthy competition but accomplish more than that in King’s view.

“The real benefit is just attracting money that people would want to give to your organization if you connected (with) them,” he said. “I think we open up more and more eyes every year.”

There were also gift card incentives for donors in an attempt to spur that side of the equation.

The average gift size was “pretty much flat” at about $402.

“Everyone was giving like they were before,” King said. “We just got a lot more new donors. That’s what made the difference.”

Looking at the total, $866,951 was donated in total — $609,253 online and $257,000 in checks in addition to the march.

Is a $1 million Warren Gives on the horizon?

“Certainly with the growth, the level of participation, a few organizations that performed exceptionally well this year helped some other organizations think what was impossible might be possible,” King said. “That’s really aspirational but at this point achievable.

“Organizations have always become better and better about fighting out how Warren Gives worked for them and their donors.”