Great Community Give 2025 aims to raise $2 million for area nonprofits -- and set an historic total by noon

One hundred and forty-seven 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.
Event hosts believe if this year’s giving follows past patterns, the $10 million mark will be reached in the morning.
The day kicks off at 6 a.m. and ends at 8 p.m.

But giving isn’t limited to just one day: Donors can also give cash or checks directly to the nonprofits from April 2-15.

“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 into populations that don’t know about GCG 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.”

Forty-three generous sponsors, many of whom have supported the event since 2018, contribute to a prize pool of more than $76,000, all of which goes back to the nonprofits through hourly contests and random drawings.

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

• Explore More 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 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.