Fremont Area Big Give — 24‑Hour Online Drive

A local giving drive is live in Fremont, and the pitch is pretty simple: for 24 hours, people can go online and donate directly to dozens of nonprofits across Fremont and the wider Dodge County area. The event is the 2026 Fremont Area Big Give, run by the Fremont Area Community Foundation, and it’s happening Thursday, May 7. This is the 10th year for the campaign, which matters because it has turned into a real annual funding jolt for small and mid-size community groups. ### What is the Big Give, exactly? It’s a one-day online giving challenge. Donors use a single website to search for participating organizations, choose one or several groups, and check out in one transaction — basically like an online store, but for charitable gifts. The minimum donation is $10, and the money is meant to be unrestricted, which is a big deal for nonprofits because unrestricted dollars can cover the boring but essential stuff — staffing, rent, utilities, repairs, and the gaps grants often won’t touch. ### Who’s involved this year? The scale is bigger than a casual fundraiser. A total of 78 nonprofits are participating in the 2026 drive. They span a lot of categories — housing support, food security, youth programming, animals, arts, parks, historic sites, and emergency services. That mix is part of why these local giving days work. A donor who shows up for one cause often ends up seeing five others they didn’t know were operating nearby. ### Why does the 24-hour window matter? The short clock creates urgency, but it also unlocks extras. The Big Give includes prizes and matching opportunities that can stretch donor money or help nonprofits win bonus funding during the day. That means a $10 or $25 gift is not always just a $10 or $25 gift — sometimes it also helps an organization qualify for a separate prize pool. The whole format is built to make small donations feel consequential. ### What’s new this year? The headline wrinkle is a 10th-anniversary endowment prize. One participating nonprofit will receive a $10,000 endowment fund at the Fremont Area Community Foundation. That’s different from a normal one-time prize because an endowment is built to last. The money is invested, and the nonprofit gets a longer-tail source of support instead of just a single bump in cash. For smaller organizations, that kind of durable funding is rare. ### How big has this gotten? Last year’s Big Give raised more than $480,000 for area nonprofits. Since the event started, it has brought in more than $3 million overall. Those numbers help explain why the day gets attention every spring. This is no longer just a feel-good community promotion — it’s a meaningful slice of annual fundraising for many participating groups. ### Why do local nonprofits care so much about unrestricted gifts? Because restricted money is easier to raise than flexible money. A donor will often fund a visible project — a program, a room, a campaign — but the organization still has to keep the lights on and pay people to run the thing. Unrestricted gifts are the difference between “we launched something” and “we can keep doing it in six months.” A drive like this helps because it doesn’t force every nonprofit to package itself around a narrow grant pitch for one day. ### So what should people know today? The giving window for the 2026 Fremont Area Big Give runs from midnight to midnight on Thursday, May 7, though early giving began on May 1. Donors can browse participating organizations, give to multiple groups at once, and in some cases help trigger matches or prize eligibility along the way. ### Bottom line This is a very local story, but that’s the point. The Fremont Area Big Give turns one day of online attention into operating money for 78 nonprofits — and after 10 years and more than $3 million raised, it has become part of how the area funds the institutions people rely on.