LGD, ya heard of it?

20+ local bands across 3 stages • 3 comedians • 140 nonprofits from the tri-country area

We all love live music. We can get into stand-up. We enjoy excuses to hang out and day drink. We like to use terms like “buy local.” But let’s be honest, do we get jazzed about the word “nonprofits?” Nah, not so much.

But TBH (we say in the least preachy way possible), charity can be cool, kids! Caring about your community is cool and educating yourself about the organizations making a difference in your community can be downright inspiring.

Chances are you’re not too familiar with Lowcountry Giving Day. Though it’s been in existence for the past three years, most of us have never even heard about.

Since 2014, Lowcountry Giving Day (or LGD, to those in tha know) has been an exclusively online event where people have been able to donate to hundreds of nonprofits with one click from behind a screen. That’s awesome. But that’s just not something people like us, and probably people like you?, can connect with.

THIS year, though, Collective Force Foundation has taken over LGD and, for the first time, the day will materialize in the physical world. On September 19th, you can come out to The Riverdogs Stadium anytime between 3 and 9 p.m. to engage with 140 local nonprofits face-to-face while listening to over 20 local bands perform in the stadium concourse.

The event is pretty major - a massive undertaking which a humble, tiny team of about seven has taken on. For the past four months or so, the largely inexperienced but equally dedicated group (mostly consisting of college students and recent graduates) has volunteered their time, balancing full and part time jobs, college classes, social lives, and passion projects with spending nights in the Collective Force office, barefoot and drowning in sticky notes, squeezing in showers when time allows, to pull off the inaugural physical LGD.

Alexis Berg explains part of the emotional #struggle involved with planning the event: your friends think you’re crazy: “Why would you spend every waking hour on a job that pays next to nothing? Why can’t you take a weekend off? They are taking advantage of you. Blah Blah. It can be lonely at times when the people around you don’t get it. They don’t get that we have been given the opportunity to make a real difference in our community.”

But like Adam Helms, founder of GigDawg, says: “The reason we have been able to push through every obstacle we've encountered in planning an event of this size is because we all believe in this event and what it represents. Over the past few months we've become a family, we've supported each other, and our shared vision for this event has grown… We believe that every great thought, deed, movement, act, etc. begins with one and we've decided to begin with ourselves."

From 3 p.m. until 7 p.m., a variety of live local music will be performed on three stages: the Ill Vibe The Tribe Stage, the GigDawg Stage, and the WoodChuck Stage (haaay). Then the action will move to the third base line, where Brendan Fitzpatrick (of Out of Order) will shred the Star Spangled Banner a la Jimi Hendrix.

Vocal powerhouse Lindsay Holler will kick off the nighttime ‘Celebration Showcase’ at 7:15 p.m., performing on top of the dugout, followed by a killer comedy lineup: 14 year old Colin Musolf, “Girly Bits” host Genesis Gonzalez, and headliner Jeremy McLellan.

The music all day long is free and admission to the Celebration Showcase only requires a donation (of any size), the proceeds of which will benefit a nonprofit of your choice from the LGD roster. These nonprofits, though there are guaranteed to be many you’ve never even heard of, impact 1.7 million people across the tri-country area. That means if you haven’t been directly served by one of these 140 nonprofits, someone you know has been!

LGD is going to be an awesome opportunity for the community to come together, to celebrate and learn about the good being done in our area, and to embrace Charleston’s spirit of generosity by supporting those who serve our neighbors. We encourage you to join the party and bring at least $1 cash with you to hand over to a nonprof - but -

What we’re especially stoked to tell you a little more about is our beloved local musicians who have donated their time and talents and who will be bringing the stadium dizown all day long. Check out the graphics below for set schedules and times!

WoodChuck Stage

Ill Vibe Stage

GigDawg Stage

Celebration Showcase