The Seattle Foundation has announced that the one-day "online GiveBIG" event on May 2 generated donations totaling $7.4 million for local nonprofits, more than twice the $3.6 million raised by last year's event.

Nearly thirty-eight hundred people from all fifty states and twenty-three foreign countries made donations to more than twelve hundred local nonprofits profiled on the foundation's Web site. A share of each online donation will be matched from an $800,000 "stretch pool" provided by the Seattle International, Bezos Family, and Seattle foundations, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, other local businesses, and individual donors.

The issue areas that attracted the most in donations were arts and culture ($1.66 million), health and wellness ($1.33 million), and basic needs ($1.28 million). Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, with a total of 1,217, received the highest number of individual donations.

"'GiveBIG' brings together two of our region's greatest passions — technology and philanthropy — in a way that truly excites and unites the people of King County," said Seattle Foundation president and CEO Norman B. Rice. "I have never seen a stronger display of generosity and community spirit than what I witnessed today with 'GiveBIG.'"