2026 Match Magic competition kicks off in Cobb for $2M goal

Let's take a live look out at Cobb County this morning. You see the Truist Park sign. I'm going to remove my name. There you go. You see it now. And it's such a beautiful day outside. We'll talk weather here soon. But just outside the front gates of Truist Park, of course, is the Battery. And that's where we'll find our Eli Jordan. So the 2026 Magic Community campaign is on the Plaza Green. We can hear the noise there. There are 150 fans cheering on the 31 non-profits. Eli, tell us more about what's happening there. Here we go. Good morning, Jasmine. Yeah, the Cobb Community Foundation 2026 is having their Match Magic event here today. 31 non-profits are going to be getting some donations and all that competition going on there in their Power Hour. And right now, I am with Sherry Martin, who is the CEO of Cobb Community Foundation. Oh, I flipped that around there. There we go. Hey. How you doing, Sherry? Hey there. Thanks for joining us, Sherry Martin. Tell us, first of all, tell us, what is Cobb Community Foundation? So, Cobb Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization that focuses on charitable funds. We work with businesses. We work with individuals. To help copy the best it can be. So what is Match Magic, though? This seems like an intense, you know, hands-on, competitive donation. It is. It is. It is. We don't have a lot of what I call discretionary dollars to give away in grants. So we want to leverage what we do have. Help nonprofits earn as much as they can. Not just during this three-week campaign and resources. We're trying to spread the word. So what all types of nonprofits are we looking at that are going to be a benefit? Helping with job mobility and job training. It is across the board. And the people that we see out here, are they part of the Cobb Community Foundation? Or are they volunteers? Just tell me about who we're seeing out here. Sure, sure. We've got a few of our board members here. Of course, our entire team is here. But who? The most people that you're seeing, these are the organizations, the 31 that are part of Match Magic, and they are all competing during what we call the power hour, which is 1030 to 1130, to see who can generate the most dollars coming in through our website, and the winner is going to get $2,500 in addition to that. Have they been calling people up saying, hey, would you like to donate? They've been calling people up, but in addition to that, they have been going ahead and prepping Many of their donors and saying, hey, if you you give to us during this window, we could win an additional $2,500. And so they've already prepped them. They've been calling them on the phone during today. They're all over social media. So they're, they've pulled out all the stops. And this is going on for about this three weeks, three weeks and endeavor going on for three weeks to raise $2 million to raise 2 million, 31 organizations raising $2 million. And we're We're raising a match pool. So I'd love to say that we could raise enough of a pool to match that dollar for dollar. Hey, if you want to help, we'd love that. But our match pool is going to be at least $200,000. And every organization will get a pro rata piece of that based on how much they earn of the total. So this is a relatively new foundation, new event, I guess. Tell me how long you guys have been doing it and what your website people, other people want to get involved. Absolutely. So we've been doing this for three years. Our first year, we raised $800,000. The second year, we raised $1.7 million. And this year, the goal is $2 million. Our website is cobbfoundation.org, C-O-B-B, foundation.org. And on the homepage, you're going to see Match Magic. They're big and wide. And you click that button and it will show you every single organization that you can help support. I guess, you know, other nonprofits, they can like put their hat in the name in the hat for next year's events and things like that. What we what we do is we actually have an application process to apply to be a part of this. This year, we had 70 organizations apply and we ended up selecting 31. Awesome. Well, it looks like it's well attended this morning. People are excited to get those donations rolling in, kicking off this campaign. Two million dollars for the Match Magic. Sherry Martin, thank you so much for your time this morning. Thank you. Appreciate you. And Jasmine, that's what's going on here at the Battery. They're raising some funds, getting some matching funds. You know, Match Magic, get down here. Benefit 31 nonprofits in the Cobb County community area. Back to you. All right, Eli. Sounds good. What a wonderful event for a great cause here. We'll see you later here on Fox Local and our 1 o'clock stream.