Y’all are giving too much.

Because of technical problems blamed on too many generous people trying to donate through the Big Day of Giving website, the Sacramento region’s annual charity blitz made the unprecedented move of extending its deadline an extra 16 hours—until 3 p.m., May 4.

That should be a relief to the 570 nonprofits vying for tax-deductible donations ranging between $25 and $10,000 apiece.

As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday—seven-and-a-half hours before the original deadline—10,349 donations totaling $1.54 million had been raised, short of last year’s pace, when $5.6 million was raised by the 24-hour deadline.

The website issues were nationwide on Tuesday. The Sacramento region’s Big Day of Giving, which is organized by area community foundations, is part of a national giving day called Give Local America, which raised $68 million for more than 9,000 nonprofits last year.

According to an email message from Stand Up Placer Chief Operating Officer Garth Brooks (no, not that one), a massive amount of online traffic shut down all the websites associated with Give Local America.

Brooks said his organization had been informed by the vendor who operates the donation site, Kimbia, that it was working to reduce the system load. “No timetable has been specified, other than ‘as soon as possible,'” Brooks wrote.

As of 3:30 central time, Kimbia said on its website that the donation forms were processing, but with users still experiencing delays.

One of the three local organizers, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, offered the 20th-century option of calling in donations to its office at (916) 921-7723—but with a caveat:
“We will take the donation over the phone and keep track after the fact, when we have had the opportunity to communicate with our phone.”