By Maja Beckstrom

St. Paul Pioneer Press

ST. PAUL — Erich Mische likens Give to the Max to Election Day.

“I’d call it charities’ get-out-the-vote day,” said Mische, a former political adviser who now runs a nonprofit, Spare Key, that gives families with sick or injured children grants to help pay the rent or mortgage.

Spare Key also is one of the thousands of organizations and schools that will happily accept your money Thursday during Minnesota’s annual day of online giving.

In many ways, Give to the Max has become “ask to the max,” as organizations hit up supporters during the 24-hour appeal with email solicitations, social media posts and stories about the good they do in the world.

“Early on, we saw all the adoption was among large organizations,” said Andy Goldman-Gray, interim director of GiveMN, the organization that runs the fundraising event. “In the last couple of years we’ve seen more smaller organizations getting into the game and getting savvy.”

Give to the Max was created in 2009 by several large Minnesota foundations to help nonprofits transition from direct-mail fundraising to online donations. Seven years later, the day and its platform, GiveMN.org, have become an integral part of Minnesota philanthropy.

And, as participation rises, groups are striving to set themselves apart and draw attention and money to their particular cause. A few have even dropped out of the day entirely and set up their own separate giving days — some tied to this same week in November.

The gimmicks

Last year, 62,000 people donated $18.3 million to more than 5,500 organizations on Give to the Max Day.

“There’s a lot of competition just to get through the noise of everybody who is out there on one day,” said Mische. “For small nonprofits that don’t have big marketing budgets and a big group of supporters, you have to come up with crazy and fun ways to get people’s attention.”

In 2012, Spare Key promoted Give to the Max with a 24-hour pedal pub ride.

It held bowl-a-thons the next two years, and this year it is asking supporters to “Sweat to the Max” by collectively doing 100,000 “burpees,” a push up followed by a jump in the air with an overhead clap.

“We wanted to do something for Give to Max that was fun and engaging and that focused on a younger demographic,” said Mische, who is asking for a $1 donation per burpee, performed at home or at one of three CrossFit gyms (including CrossFit St. Paul at 470 N. Cleveland Ave.).

Spare Key isn’t the only group having fun. Huge Improv Theater in Minneapolis is staging around-the-clock improvisation skits that started Wednesday night. The Mars Generation, founded by a college freshman and her mother to promote space exploration, is asking supporters to eat nothing but potatoes on Thursday, a nod to the diet of the fictional astronaut stranded on Mars in the movie “The Martian.” Students Today, Leaders Forever is encouraging alumni of its high school and college community service road trips to hold Give to the Max parties.

Peer-to-peer makes it personal

If you can get donors to post videos of their burpees on Facebook, that’s even better. It’s called peer-to-peer fundraising and it’s what every organization hopes to see a lot of on Thursday. Some organizations just hope it happens, and others train their network of supporters, volunteers and staff more formally.

Prepare + Prosper, a St. Paul organization that prepares tax returns for low-income people, encourages its employees and several hundred volunteers to ask friends and family for money. Last year, the group pulled in $50,000 on Give to the Max, up from $8,000 in 2011.