Officials with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee decided to end the The Big Payback giving event early because of technical difficulties.
The host site was overloaded during Tuesday's event, and the traffic volume affected donation sites across the country.
"We so appreciate the kindness and generosity of the hundreds of people who stayed up in the wee hours of the morning to support their favorite nonprofits,” said Ellen Lehman, president of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
They told NewsChannel 5 mid-afternoon that they were working to get it back up and made decisions about how to make sure every charity got a fair chance to get their donations.
Yet, the problems continued and they were forced to end the event several hours early.
The Big Payback was well on its way to surpassing 2015’s $2.64 million total in Middle Tennessee before the national vendor-based giving website site crashed about midmorning.
The donation event was created to highlight area nonprofits' great work and inspire community-wide giving.
It started at midnight on Tuesday, May 3. Donors could give to 770 participating nonprofits during a 24-hour time period.
The groups included schools and religious institutions, which were located in or provide services in the 40 counties of Middle Tennessee.
