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Nonprofit Leader of the Year

Big Sunday Director Named Nonprofit Leader of the Year

Big Sunday’s Executive Director, David Levinson, was named Nonprofit Leader of the Year as part of the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service.

The inaugural Governor and First Lady’s Medal for Service recognizes a nonprofit leader whose “innovation in the field of volunteerism has had a tangible effect in their community, region, or in the state of California.”

“This award is a great honor, especially coming from Governor Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, who have done so much to promote volunteerism,” Levinson said. “I accept it on behalf of the thousands and thousands of people who make Big Sunday happen year after year.”

Levinson founded Big Sunday in 1999 as a single day of community service with 200 people volunteering at 19 nonprofits in Los Angeles. This year on Big Sunday weekend, some 50,000 volunteers of all ages and all backgrounds worked together at more than 500 nonprofit sites from San Diego to Solvang. Big Sunday is now the largest regional community service event in America.

The prestigious California Medals for Service were also given to Thomas Zimmerman, who was named Volunteer of the Year for his work creating an after school science enrichment program for low-income students. And to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which received the award for Business Volunteer Program of the Year in honor of it’s employee volunteer program.

“Today’s recipients rose to the top of the outstanding nominations as the embodiment of the service movement,” said California’s Secretary of Service and Volunteering Karen Baker. “They are an inspiration to us all on what can be achieved through determination and commitment.”