Amplify Austin — the city's epic day of giving — returns March 4-5 for its ninth annual event, and for what may turn out to be the most important year ever.

For those in need of a little refresher, Amplify Austin is I Live Here, I Give Here's annual 24-hour bonanza in which nonprofits across the city vie for donations of $5 or more. Throughout the day, I Live Here, I Give Here sponsors special virtual events, partnerships, and community challenges to encourage Austinities give big to their beloved local organizations. (A full list of prizes and matching donations can be found here.)

This year, more than 675 vetted, local nonprofits will take part from the following seven Central Texas counties: Travis, Hays, Williamson, Burnet, Bastrop, Caldwell, and Blanco.

As part of the celebration, participants can join a special virtual fundraising party, which kicks off at 6 pm on Thursday, March 4, through 6 pm on Friday, March 5. Follow along on AmplifyATX.org for the celebration, produced in partnership with C3 Presents, and including appearances from local business leaders like Liz Lambert and Graham Williams; media personalities like Localeur's Joah Spearman; and performances from David Ramirez​, ​Mélat​, ​Alex Maas​ (The Black Angels), and ​​Loulou Ghelichkhani​ (Thievery Corporation and Night Glitter), among others.

The fun officially kicks off at 6 pm on Thursday, but participants can give now and still have their donations count as part of Amplify Austin. Use the search bar to choose by category (animal services, food banks, and racial equity are just three examples), or find your favorite nonprofit by name, then just click and donate.

This year, in response to last month's winter storms, I Live Here, I Give Here launched the ILHIGH Amplify: Disaster Relief Fund, a matching gift fund that is designated to support 130-plus Central Texas organizations whose missions focus on one of the following cause categories: basic needs; disaster relief and emergency response; human services; and/or housing, shelter, and homelessness.

Also new this year is I Live Here I Give Here's partnership with The New Philanthropists. The partnership "provide[s] an additional $13,500 matching gift pool for organizations that participate in both Amplify Austin Day and The New Philanthropists Board Matching Program, which offers board of directors placement opportunities to leaders of color and provides programming opportunities for nonprofits looking to create a more inclusive environment," says a release.

Like all years, Amplify Austin's giving goals for 2021 are ambitious. This year, Amplify Austin is calling on the community to double their participation from prior years to 60,000 unique individual donors. The organization also hopes to match last year's giving total of $12.3 million for location nonprofits in just 24 hours.