Give to Lincoln Day is a reminder of what happens when a community decides to take care of its own. For the entire month of May, with a final push in a day of giving on May 28, donations to local nonprofits are matched through a community incentive fund, multiplying the impact of every dollar. But for Friendship Home, the significance of this day goes far beyond matching gifts. It represents something much more urgent: the growing need for safety, shelter, and support for survivors of domestic violence in Lincoln.
In 2025 alone, Friendship Home provided safety and services to 2,772 survivors of domestic violence. Each of those numbers represents a person who needed somewhere safe to turn, often suddenly and with very few resources in hand. Safety is not guaranteed; it is something that must be immediately available.
Throughout the same year, Friendship Home received 1,068 requests for emergency shelter.
They are phone calls, outreach efforts, and moments of desperation when someone is actively trying to leave an unsafe situation.
Because of community support, Friendship Home was able to provide shelter to 502 individuals, including 292 children. While not every request could be met with a physical bed due to capacity limitations, each person who was sheltered received safety, stability, and immediate support during a critical transition point in their life. For children, safety often means the difference between ongoing trauma and the first steps toward healing.
The scale of daily care is just as significant as the number of individuals served. In 2025, Friendship Home provided more than 52,755 meals and nearly 59,797 bed nights. These numbers reflect the day-to-day reality of shelter work: ensuring that basic human needs like food, rest, and safety are consistently met for individuals who are rebuilding their lives free from domestic violence.
But perhaps the most striking reality is not just what happened in 2025, it is how the need has changed over time. In 2015, Friendship Home was sheltering just over 40 individuals per day. By 2020, that number had risen to more than 100 per day. In 2025, we were serving over 165 individuals per day on average. Now, in 2026, that number has reached 190 individuals daily.
This significant increase reflects that the need for domestic violence services in our community is growing. More individuals are seeking safety, and more families are reaching a point where support is urgently needed. While Friendship Home continues to expand its response, the gap between need and capacity remains a daily reality.
This is where Give to Lincoln Day becomes especially important.
Donations made during this campaign do more than support general operations. They directly strengthen the ability to respond to crisis in real time. They help ensure that when someone makes the difficult decision to leave an unsafe situation, there is a place ready to receive them. They support the staff who answer those 1,000+ shelter requests each year. They provide meals, shelter, advocacy, and long-term support for survivors and their children.
And because Give to Lincoln Day includes a community-wide match, every donation goes further. A single gift is amplified, meaning more meals can be served, more bed nights can be provided, and more survivors can be supported as they take steps toward safety and independence.
Friendship Home exists because domestic violence affects far more people than most realize, often experienced in isolation. But when a community chooses to give, that isolation is broken. Support becomes visible. Safety becomes accessible. And hope becomes something tangible.
Every donation contributes to a system that responds to crisis, provides shelter, and helps survivors rebuild their lives with dignity.
And as the numbers show, the need is not slowing down. It is growing.
Which is exactly why giving now matters more than ever.
Support survivors in our community today by donating to Friendship Home through Give to Lincoln Day.
