Big Day of Giving 2014

Starting at midnight on May 6, 2014 the Sacramento community came together to support close to 400 non-profit organizations throughout the region, including Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services (SFBFS). BIG Day of Giving (BIG DoG), hosted by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation and Givelocalnow.org, was a 24 hour online giving challenge part of a national campaign called GiveLocalAmerica. The objective of this challenge was to not only bring additional funding to the Sacramento region, but also to increase awareness of the non-profit sector and the work these organizations do to make our community a better place. To make the challenge have even more impact, many local businesses and organizations contributed funds to a pool of matching dollars. This means that every dollar donated on May 6 would receive a boost from this pool of funds.

SFBFS was invited to be a participant in the BIG DoG and Communications & Development staff began prepping by attending an orientation, a full day of boot camp sessions and putting together a comprehensive social media and communications plan. As this was a new fundraising initiative for us, we weren’t sure what to expect and were excited to see what it was all about. As the weeks passed by we kept promoting the BIG DoG, posting on Facebook and Twitter, emailing current donors, also excited to see what our neighbor non-profit organizations were doing to promote the event. A buzz surrounding BIG DoG was definitely out in the community and I think we were all eager to see how successful it would be.

Midnight on May 6 arrived and donations started coming in. Facebook and Twitter were filled with posts highlighting #givebigdog. Givelocalnow.org was posting real-time updates so participants and donors could check their fundraising progress. If May 6 marked anything other than BIG oG, it would be hard to tell from the amount of coverage dedicated to the challenge.

During the 24 hour challenge, BIG DoG generated over $3,000,000 for Sacramento area participant non-profits. Over $24,500 of that funding was generated from 190 unique donors who chose SFBFS as their beneficiary organization. Of those 190 donors, 50% were first-time donors to SFBFS. I would say the objective of bringing additional funding and awareness of the non-profit sector to the Sacramento region was a success. I would also say that SFBFS was honored to be a participant in the BIG DoG and is looking forward to another successful BIG DoG in 2015!

Submitted by Melissa Arnold, Development Officer at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services