Eighth annual Great Community Give set to surpass historic giving mark

Approximately 149 nonprofits serving Harrisonburg and Rockingham County will participate in the eighth annual Great Community Give on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The online giving day, hosted by The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham (TCFHR), has raised more than $9.2 million since the first year.

If this year’s giving follows past patterns, the $10 million mark will be reached by 10 a.m.

“When The Community Foundation started this event eight years ago, we never dreamed that our community would raise $10 million dollars for area nonprofits,” said Revlan Hill, executive director. “Our thanks go out to our wonderful team of sponsors, volunteers, and of course, the donors who come back every year to make this event so successful.”

Goals for this year include raising $2 million and increasing the number of donors.

“Last year’s total of $2.2 million was raised with the help of more than 7,600 donors, and we’d love to surpass both of those numbers,” said Lauren Jefferson, director of programs and marketing at TCFHR. “We’d also love to grow our reach to people that may not know about the event and are giving for the first time. For each of the past two years, we’ve had about 2,200 donors who are totally new to the event and have never donated before. It would be fun to see that number rise!”

Giving is as easy as visiting www.greatcommunitygive.org, searching for an organization or a cause to support, and putting a donation into a virtual cart. Donors can support multiple organizations efficiently.

“Supporting our local nonprofits and the valuable services they offer our community members is more important than ever,” Jefferson said. “We encourage donors to help us spread the word about this event and join in a really unique day that celebrates all the hard work being done to make our community a better, healthier place.”

Generous sponsors contribute to a prize pool of approximately $76,000, all of which goes back to the nonprofits through hourly contests and random drawings.

The day kicks off at 6 a.m. and ends at 8 p.m. Giving isn’t limited to just one day: Donors can also give cash or checks directly to the nonprofits from April 2-15.

Here’s how last year’s donations helped four organizations:

• Explore More Discovery Museum funded updates to their creative studio workshop, their teen internship program, Career Saturdays with area professionals, and preschool programs.
• Village to Village hosted a week-long free camp for more than 60 refugee students  who built relationships through workshops, games and meals with 50 community volunteers.
• Silk Moth Stage, a theater that has pioneered accessibility in Virginia, used some of the donation from Great Community Give to provide American Sign Language interpretation at several
  

  Village to Village used GCG funding to fund a summer camp for refugee children. (Courtesy photo)

  performances. “Other theaters have reached out to me for advice about adding ASL and other accessibility practices since they saw how positive it was for Silk Moth Stage,” said Aili Huber, artistic director.

• Still Meadows Enrichment Center and Camp, a therapeutic riding center and outdoor facility, used the funds from GCG to maintain railings on the accessible treehouse; purchase day camp supplies; and expand their riding activities with new equipment.