Fremont Area Big Give 24‑Hour Online Drive

The Fremont Area Big Give is basically a one-day online fundraising sprint for local nonprofits — and this year’s version started Thursday, May 7. The event is run by the Fremont Area Community Foundation, and it pulls dozens of organizations from Fremont and the greater Dodge County area onto one donation platform for 24 hours. This is the 10th annual edition, which matters because it shows the thing has moved past novelty and into local routine. The pitch is simple: if you want to help a hometown nonprofit, this is the day the whole community gets nudged to do it at once. ### What is the Big Give, exactly? It’s a 24-hour online giving day, not a gala, auction, or in-person telethon. People go to the Fremont Area Big Give site, pick a participating nonprofit, and donate there. The foundation frames it as a way to raise unrestricted dollars — money groups can use where they need it most, instead usually covers the boring but essential stuff like staffing, utilities, and day-to-day operations. ### Who’s involved this year? A total of 78 area nonprofits are participating in the 2026 campaign. That gives the event real scale — this isn’t one marquee charity soaking up attention. It’s a shared fundraising day for arts groups, service organizations, youth programs, and other local causes that usually compete for donor time and dollars. Several participating their own supporters to give through the common platform on May 7. ### Why does the date matter? The campaign runs from midnight to midnight on Thursday, May 7, 2026. But the catch is that donations didn’t have to wait until Thursday. Early giving opened on May 1, which lets nonprofits bank support before the one-day push peaks. Minimum donations start at $10, so the event is built to attract a lot of small and mid-sized gifts, not just a few large checks. ### Why do organizers make such a big deal out of “24 hours”? Because concentration changes behavior. A normal donation ask can drift by unnoticed, but a one-day clock gives people a deadline and gives nonprofits a reason to post, email, and rally supporters all at once. Think of it like a local version of Giving Tuesday, but part of why these campaigns can generate gifts from people who might not respond to a routine annual appeal. ### How big has this gotten? Pretty big for a regional giving day. The campaign site says that since 2017, the Fremont Area Big Give has inspired more than 17,000 gifts and raised nearly $3.5 million. Organizers also say last year alone brought in more than $480,000 for area nonprofits. So when they call the 2026 event a milestone year, that’s not just anniversary ### Why does unrestricted money matter so much? Because nonprofits usually don’t struggle only with programs — they struggle with everything around the programs. Rent, insurance, payroll gaps, software, repairs, and plain old breathing room all matter. Restricted grants can be great, but they can also leave an organization with money for a project support helps fill that gap. ### So what should readers watch for? The useful number is whether this year can top last year’s $480,000-plus total, especially with 78 nonprofits in the mix and a full early-giving runway. If the community shows up again, it reinforces that Fremont has built a durable local fundraising habit — not just a one-off campaign that works when the economy feels easy. ### Bottom line? This is a local philanthropy story, but it’s also a stress test. In one day, Fremont-area donors show whether community giving is still strong enough to support dozens of nonprofits at once.