Big Give sets record

McCOOK, Neb. — Individuals and businesses stepped up in their support for the 2024 Southwest Nebraska Big Give, which took place from midnight to midnight Thursday, Nov. 7. With the largest number of organizations participating in its nine-year history, the Big Give also reached record numbers in donations.

As of Friday morning, the total is at $335,000 when individual donations and sponsorship dollars are combined. The final for the 2023 Big Give was $278,000, a then-record.

Even more importantly, the number of individual donations increased from 938 in 2023 to 954 so far this year.

All of those numbers will likely increase over the next week as mail-in donations arrive in the mail and are added to the total.

Lisa Felker, co-chair of Community Chest which oversees and organizes the Southwest Nebraska Big Give, said she was impressed with the support from Southwest Nebraska residents plus all the donors across Nebraska, Kansas and the United States.

“They really stepped up this year and made the 2024 Big Give a tremendous success,” Felker said.

She added that the Big Give was made possible because of the volunteer committee, which gathers sponsorship dollars, coordinates the website and organizes the promotion of the one-day of giving.

“A special shout-out to our social media team of Baleigh Abbott, Tricia Wagner and Stacee Smock, who kept everyone up to date before and throughout the day with information,” Felker said.

Other members of the Community Chest committee are co-chair Melissa Stritt, who spends the entire day with Felker inputing and updating the donation tally on the website; Gene Weedin, JoHanna Scott, Mark Searcy, Pam Wolford, Ronda Graff and Linda Koetter.

The Big Give also saw the most non-profit organizations taking part in the event with 45 charitable groups joining the effort, covering communities across Southwest Nebraska from Curtis to Cambridge to Haigler.

A complete list of the organizations and their totals raised during the Big Give can be found on the Big Give website, swnebiggive.org.

The Southwest Nebraska Big Give continues to grow each year because of many people, businesses and organizations coming together to make it happen. These include the sponsors, which provide the matching funds to make individual donations even more impactful. Those sponsorship dollars are used to provide the matching funds during the power hours throughout the day. Organizations also receive matching funds at the end based on the total dollars raised throughout the day, up to an amount based on the sponsor dollars raised throughout the year.

The 2024 platinum sponsors include the Graff Charitable Foundation and MNB Bank.

Gold sponsors are Community Hospital and First Interstate Bank.

Silver and bronze sponsors include First Central Bank, First State Bank & Insurance Cambridge, Herrmann-Jones Funeral Chapel & Lockenhour-Jones Mortuary, MNB Insurance, Pinnacle Bank, Waypoint Bank Cambridge, and State Farm Insurance - Linda Maiden.

Friendship sponsors included High Plains Radio, Hometown Agency, Hometown Family Radio, McCook Gazette, W Design Associates, Wagner Auto Group, Hoppens & Meier Orthodontics and Samway Floor Covering & Furniture.

The Big Give would not be possible without the publicity from local media including the McCook Gazette, High Plains Radio and Hometown Family Radio.

While the Community Chest organizers are wrapping up the 2024 Big Give, plans are already underway for the 2025 Big Give.

The McCook Community Chest is a sub-account of the McCook Community Foundation Fund, an affiliate of the Nebraska Community Foundation.