The Community's Big Day
The Sacramento region united during another record-breaking Big Day of Giving
The numbers are remarkable: in just 24 hours on May 3, 587 nonprofits generated a record $7.4 million from nearly 40,000 donations by 21,000 people who care about the organizations that strengthen the Sacramento region, bringing the total raised during the capital area’s giving days to over $30 million since 2013.
In many ways, what’s behind those numbers is even more noteworthy.
“Big Day of Giving is a community-wide movement,” said Linda Beech Cutler, our Chief Executive Officer. “It has been embraced by the Sacramento region in a way that transcends anything we imagined when we launched the giving days six years ago.”
It takes many hands to build a movement. Participating nonprofits, regional media, local businesses, and our community partners rallied the capital area’s donors to give on the Big Day of Giving website and at more than 70 collaborative events that nonprofits hosted throughout the region.
“Because of Big Day of Giving, philanthropy was everywhere you looked on May 3 – on television and the radio, at cafes and breweries, in the newspaper, on billboards, and more. The community owns this day, and it’s only been successful because generous people in our community care about giving back to the nonprofits that make this region vibrant,” said Cutler.
LEARN MORE ABOUT BIG DAY OF GIVING
MORE THAN 24-HOURS
Every September, hundreds of nonprofits in the Sacramento region unite to kick-off preparations for the next year’s giving day. From October to May, they attend the orientations, trainings, focus groups, and webinars that our team coordinates to prepare for future success during Big Day of Giving – and every other day of the year, too.
“The nonprofits that take advantage of the breadth of capacity-building opportunities we have built into the program have better success than those that don’t, so we know this effort is valuable,” said Cutler. This year, the program engaged 700 nonprofit staff and volunteers in areas such as donor engagement, board development, collaboration, marketing outreach, and storytelling.
Leading to a More Generous Region
Part of our Strategic Initiative to grow local generosity, Big Day of Giving has made philanthropy more accessible in our community.