Organizations that are verified public 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofits* and that are headquartered or provide services in the Smith Mountain Lake region of Bedford or Franklin County, Virginia may apply to participate. Participating organizations must apply by January 10, 2025 and meet the requirements outlined in the application. Registration opens November 1, 2024. There is no fee to participate, but there are processing fees for each transaction.

*Private 501(c)(3) organizations and other 501(c) categorized organizations may participate but they MUST find a public 501(c)(3) organization to be their fiscal sponsor and submit an MOU to MightyCause in order to participate. For assistance registering, please contact support@mightycause.com.  

501(c)(3) chapter organizations MUST provide a letter from the national foundation verifying your chapter status. Within the letter, please request that the national foundation clarify where funds should be disbursed to your chapter (directly to the national foundation or directly to the chapter).

If you have never used the MightyCause platform for your organization before, you will need to claim your organization's page before beginning the SML Gives 2025 registration process. You will be prompted at the beginning of registration to select your organization through your EIN and this will start the process of claiming your page. There is a video linked below that can walk you through the steps of claiming your page, or you can visit https://support.mightycause.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017559451-How-do-I-access-my-organization-page for more information. If your organization does not have a page to claim, please contact support@mightycause.com. 

Once you have claimed your organization, you will need to complete the registration for SML Gives 2025 in order to apply to participate. The registration will be linked to the home page of smlgives.org. There is a video below that walks you through the process. Once you complete registration you will see a message confirming your application and you will also receive an email confirming completion of the form. Your registration will be reviewed to ensure your organization meets the requirements to participate in SML Gives 2025. Once your organization registration has been reviewed and approved, you will receive another email with confirmation of your approval.