Kids plucked violin strings and blew into a French horn Sunday at Recreation Park, as more than 100 local nonprofits set up booths and live performances at the Long Beach Gives Live! Expo & Festival, part of a citywide fundraising push that has already pulled in hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead of this week's official giving day.
The free festival, held at the Recreation Park bandshell, gave attendees a chance to meet the organizations behind Long Beach Gives, a citywide online fundraising campaign supporting Long Beach organizations, and to watch musicians and actors perform live, according to the Press Telegram. Nearly 300 nonprofits signed on to this year's campaign, supporting causes ranging from mental health to the arts, per the same report. Long Beach Gives has raised more than $13 million for Long Beach organizations since its 2019 launch, and last year's drive alone brought in more than $2.3 million for 292 nonprofits.
Booths at the Recreation Park event included the Aquarium of the Pacific, animal welfare group Catspaws (also referred to at the festival as CatPaws), Healing To You, Common Ground Grief, Shared Science, the Long Beach Symphony, the Long Beach Bar Foundation, Sk8 Haven, and the Tichenor Clinic for Children, the Press Telegram reported. The IDSGT Foundation, which works to prevent social isolation among older adults, was also represented.
Kids Get Hands-On With Instruments
Some of the festival's most memorable moments came from young attendees trying out instruments. Six-year-old Azyel Romo received an impromptu violin lesson from the Long Beach Symphony, while 9-year-old Rogue Amezquita-Rodriguez learned how to blow into a French horn from a Long Beach Symphony representative. Four-year-old Anahy Romo also played a violin at the symphony's booth, per the Press Telegram's account of the Recreation Park scene.
Live performances filled out the afternoon, with the Long Beach Student Symphony Coalition, the Club of Harps, and the Cal State Long Beach Concert Jazz Orchestra all taking the stage. Fourteen-year-old performer Zion Aguilar delivered a monologue from Hamlet with the Long Beach Shakespeare Company. Mayor Rex Richardson and contributing photographer Howard Freshman were both present at the event, according to the outlet's coverage.
A Growing Push to Diversify Nonprofit Funding
Long Beach Gives began in 2019 as a graduate school project by Julie Meenan, executive director of the Josephine S. Gumbiner Foundation, who launched the initiative after recognizing that local nonprofits were relying too heavily on foundation grants rather than building sustainable direct community support, according to the Long Beach Watchdog. Participation has expanded, with nearly 300 organizations taking part in 2026.
Long Beach Gives involves the Long Beach Community Foundation, the Rudolph J. and Daphne A. Munzer Foundation, The California Endowment, and other stakeholders, according to Children's Benefit League.
Shrinking federal funding has made local individual donations increasingly important for community services.
Early Donations Already Topping $600,000
Early giving for Long Beach Gives opened on September 17, a full week before the main 24-hour giving day scheduled for Thursday, September 24. By September 18, the campaign had raised more than $400,000.
Organizers have set aside more than $12,000 in prize money for this year's campaign, including $2,000 in early-giving matching grants and social media awards, plus $6,750 in overall giving performance prizes and additional power-hour and 908 prizes. Those prizes are categorized by nonprofit budget size so smaller grassroots organizations can compete fairly for matching funds alongside larger institutions.
With the official giving day approaching, organizers and nonprofits alike will be watching whether this year's citywide total can match or exceed 2025's $2.3 million haul.
