BIG Day of Giving Raises $7.1 Million for Local Nonprofits
Despite technical difficulties, the Sacramento region rallied to help our annual giving day exceed its $6 million goal!
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The Sacramento region's BIG Day of Giving -- the annual 24-hour giving event that was extended due to a technical interruption that impacted similar events across the country -- generated a record $7.1 million in contributions to local nonprofits earlier this month, exceeding its $6 million goal and surpassing the $5.6 million raised during the giving event last year.
"Together, our community overcame unexpected obstacles and persevered -- and, once again, demonstrated a truly generous spirit during BIG Day of Giving. The 570 participating nonprofits and our entire region rebounded from those technical challenges and rallied in an extraordinary way," said Linda Beech Cutler, chief executive of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, which organizes the event with the support of its community partners.
Big Day of Giving is a program of our philanthropy initiative, which aims to increase giving in the Sacramento region!
Given the giving platform's failure during the May 3 fundraiser, the Foundation encouraged donors to give to participating nonprofits directly and elected to extend BIG Day of Giving into the following afternoon, allowing nonprofits an additional 15 hours to leverage the event's momentum. The Foundation also announced its commitment to covering the fees Kimbia assessed on donations that were made to nonprofits at www.bigdayofgiving.org.
"Faced with the technology challenges on BIG Day of Giving, our region's response illustrated the essential character of this community -- resilient, generous, and above all, caring," said Cutler.
The disruption to the event was caused by nationwide outages on the Kimbia fundraising platform that the Foundation has used to host the region's prior successful giving days, which had raised over $9 million for local nonprofits since 2013. Cutler says the Foundation has convened its peer institutions across the country to negotiate with Kimbia and assure an independent assessment of its technical failures.
"We offer our most enthusiastic appreciation to the nonprofits, donors, and community partners who rallied to make this year's BIG Day of Giving remarkable, in spite of the day's difficulties," Cutler said.
BIG Day of Giving was made possible by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, in collaboration with the Placer Community Foundation, the Yolo Community Foundation, and the generosity of their community partners.
For more information about the 2016 BIG Day of Giving—including information about donations, donor survey information, and a timeline of the day's events—please view the BIG Day of Giving 2016 Post-Event Report.