Normally donors give to a charity, never expecting to know exactly how the money is spent, but the Charlotte Rescue Mission is doing things differently with a new fundraiser.

The name says it all: the Bed Sponsorship Campaign.

Organizers want to buy 120 beds and the accompanying mattresses, dressers and night stands to furnish the agency’s new recovery center for homeless women fighting addictions.

The cost is $300,000.

However, in another unique move, campaign organizers aren’t seeking big checks from prominent donors and foundations.

Instead, the Bed Sponsorship Campaign is recruiting civic clubs, youth groups and faith organizations to sponsor their own small fundraisers, all focused on raising only as much money as it takes to buy a room of furniture: $2,500.

“We don’t want that disconnected feeling of putting money into a pail. We want people to have fun with this,” says Charlotte businessman Mark Thigpen, who is leading the campaign.

“This is about getting people involved. And it’s about giving a dollar and knowing where that dollar is going: furnishing a room. It’s something tangible.”

Charlotte Rescue Mission helps homeless men and women who suffer from addictions. Its facilities are at capacity, with 140 men and 12 women.

The new center for women represents a bold $11.2 million charity initiative, given it was launched during the economic downturn. The capital campaign has raised $9.2 million, officials say.

Charlotte Rescue Mission hopes to raise the remaining $2 million before the building is finished.

The new Dove’s Nest will have beds for 90 women and 30 for their children, compared with only 12 adult beds at the existing facility in the Dilworth community. Currently, women have to find someone to take care of their children while they’re going through the four and a half months of treatment.

A “topping out” ceremony will be 3:30 p.m. today at the West Boulevard site of the new Dove’s Nest recovery center, marking the completion of the building’s framing.

The Bed Sponsorship Campaign runs until June and a grand opening for the new Dove’s Nest is expected in August. Among its features will be plaques representing groups who participated in the campaign.

Tony Marciano, head of the Charlotte Rescue Mission, notes Dove’s Nest has a 74 percent completion rate, which means an average of 202 women each year would leave the expanded center free of their addictions.

“What I like about the Bed Sponsorship Campaign is that it’s groups of people, working together to make a difference. That’s what we need in this community,” says Marciano. “We need people locking arms to end homelessness.”