Fremont Area Big Give — 24‑Hour Drive

The Fremont Area Big Give is basically a one-day online fundraising sprint for local nonprofits — but the bigger point is that it has become one of the area’s main annual money-and-attention boosts for community groups. This year’s event opened at 12:00 a.m. CST on Thursday, May 7, and runs until 11:59 p.m., with donations going through the campaign site run by the Fremont Area Community Foundation. The setup is simple. People pick a nonprofit, give online, and those gifts can also help organizations compete for extra prize money. That extra layer is what turns a normal donation drive into a full-day community contest. ### What is this event, exactly? It’s a 24-hour online giving day for nonprofits in the Fremont area and greater Dodge County. The Fremont Area Community Foundation organizes and underwrites it, and the stated goal is not just to raise money but to push unrestricted dollars to local groups — the kind of money nonprofits can actually use where pressure is highest, instead of only on pre-set projects. ### Who’s involved this year? The 2026 edition is the 10th annual Big Give, and 78 nonprofits are participating. That matters because this is not one charity’s campaign. It’s a shared platform for a wide range of local groups — from housing and food support to youth programming, arts, parks, schools, and emergency services. In other words, the event works like a single fundraising storefront for a lot of the civic infrastructure people rely on without always noticing it. ### Why does the 24-hour window matter? Scarcity helps. A normal fundraiser can drift into the background, but a midnight-to-midnight campaign gives people a deadline and gives nonprofits a reason to rally supporters all at once. The site also layers in hourly prizes, participation prizes, matches, and social-media challenges, so a small donation can do more than its face value if it helps an organization unlock bonus money. ### Can people give before May 7? Yes — and that’s one of the useful details here. Early giving opened on May 1. So while the public-facing event is a single day, donors have had a runway to put money in before the clock starts. The minimum online gift is $10, which lowers the barrier a lot. This is meant to pull in broad participation, not just a few large checks. ### What kind of money are we talking about? Last year’s Big Give raised more than $480,000 for area nonprofits. The campaign site says that since 2017, the event has brought in nearly $3.5 million through more than 17,000 gifts. For a local giving day, that’s real scale. It means the event has moved from “nice community tradition” into something more structural — a recurring revenue moment many groups probably plan around. ### Why does unrestricted money matter so much? Because nonprofits usually have bills that are boring but unavoidable — payroll, rent, utilities, repairs, supplies. Restricted grants often can’t cover those gaps. Unrestricted giving is more like handing someone grocery money instead of a coupon that only works on one aisle. It gives organizations room to solve the problem actually in front of them. ### So what should donors know today? The practical part is straightforward. Donations go through the Fremont Area Big Give website, and the giving window closes at 11:59 p.m. CST on Thursday, May 7. If someone already knows which local group they care about, this is the day that gift can carry a little more leverage because of the shared campaign structure. ### Bottom line This is a local fundraising drive, but it’s also a stress test of community support. Fremont-area nonprofits get one concentrated day to turn goodwill into flexible cash — and this year, 78 organizations are trying to do it at once.