Seven-year-old Eli LaMartina came into the Maine Needs donation center in Portland earlier this month with $11, money he’d saved in a piggy bank over the last year or so. He hoped it would do some good.

Within hours, grownups who read about his gift on social media were inspired to match his generosity. Many made their own $11 donations. Some made an $11 donation for each person in their family. In less than a week, about 400 people had donated more than $7,000 to Maine Needs.

“Sometimes the kids know best, the kids know how to act and how to make things happen,” said Angela Stone, founder and executive director of Maine Needs, who accepted the donation from Eli and his mother on Feb. 7. “Sometimes kids can inspire adults in ways other adults can’t.”

Eli, who lives in Portland, felt too shy to talk about his donation on the phone, but answered some email questions about it through his mother, Leigh LaMartina. When asked what he thought of people donating money to Maine Needs because of him, he replied “Cool!”

When asked what he hoped Maine Needs would use the donations for, he said “to help kids so they have fun toys.”

Eli’s mom said he was given a special piggy bank a couple years ago that was meant to be used to save money for a charitable donation. Whenever he could, he put coins in it. He and his mom talked occasionally about what he might do with the money.

Then this month he and his mother were making art kits with friends to donate to Maine Needs, and Eli decided he wanted his piggy bank money to go there too. So they converted his coins to bills and visited Maine Needs’ Congress Street donation center on a Saturday morning.

Stone was there that morning and was touched by the donation. She asked Eli if she could take his photo, but he felt shy and declined. He agreed to a photo of his cash donation, though. Stone told Eli she’d like to post the picture and the story of his gift on Instagram, because it might inspire grownups to give.

The post brought in donations and comments immediately, in $11 increments. Someone donated $22 on behalf of their two grandchildren. A family of four donated $44. Within a day, people matching Eli’s donation had given more than $5,500.

“It just spread like wildfire. I was getting dinged (with message notifications) all day long. It completely drained my battery,” said Stone.

Some donations have come in envelopes with hand-written notes about Eli. Others have come online, along with comments like “Inspired by Eli! Thank you for showing us ‘grownups’ how it’s done!” and “Happy to be a part of many neighbors showing up eleven dollars at a time, with love and solidarity.”

The non-profit Maine Needs started in 2019 to help get Mainers things they need, including essentials like household items and clothing. Working from a donation center in Portland, the group fills the requests of some 550 service providers working with more than 260 organizations statewide, including caseworkers, teachers, nurses and street outreach teams, Stone said. People can donate online at maineneeds.org/give.

Eli’s mother said she’d talked with her son about why it’s important to support organizations like Maine Needs, helping families in the community get the things they need.

LaMartina said she and Eli hope that the story of Eli’s donation will help highlight “the amazing work the organization is doing and the way the community responded.”

“We have been completely blown away by the enthusiasm and generosity of this community. We did not expect anything like this response,” LaMartina wrote in an email to the Press Herald. “The day after his donation, when we saw the donations coming in, Eli said, ‘If adults can see kids helping kids, then they will want to help kids too.'”