Lincoln’s annual celebration of generosity, “Give to Lincoln Day,” concludes its month-long donation campaign for local non-profits on Thursday, May 30.
Event’s coordinators with The Lincoln Community Foundation (LCF) tell KLIN News, this year will feature their largest match-fund since the event began in 2012: $650,000.
Donations of any size made through givetolincoln.com to the 463 non-profit organizations participating in Give to Lincoln Day will receive a proportional share from the match-fund — provided by LCF and sponsors, including the presenting sponsor, West Gate Bank.
“There are so many nonprofit organizations that we rely on to make Lincoln a fantastic place to live and work and play, and those nonprofit organizations rely on our support,” LCF President Alec Gorynski told KLIN. “We have seen such a huge uptick in giving this year. People, I think, are really understanding and appreciating the important role non-profit organizations play in our community, and they’re opening up their hearts to provide support to those organizations.”
Over the past twelve years, the people of Lincoln have donated over $57 million during Give to Lincoln Day.
However, Gorynski added, Give to Lincoln Day is not focused on large financial donations.
“We talk about the dollars and cents that come through, but some of the more meaningful numbers are the sheer volume of individual donations,” Gorynski said. “In 2023, we had around 27,000 individual transactions… That’s pretty remarkable.”
The donation portal and a list of participating non-profits can be viewed at givetolincoln.com, with a large variety of organizations and causes accepting generosity, including organizations focused on arts/culture, animal well-being, housing and shelter, healthcare, human services, youth development, and more.
A live updating donation-leaderboard can be viewed at givetolincoln.com. Final results will be published the next week.
Gorynski compared the day to “election day” for non-profits, with different organizations vying for the #1 spot on the leaderboard, all in “good, healthy competition,” he concluded.