What a Difference a Day Makes!

By Marla J. Williams, president and CEO of Community First Foundation

Community First Foundation, FirstBank, media sponsors, and hundreds of nonprofits work all year to pull off a giving day that makes a difference.

In the months leading up to Colorado Gives Day, we’ve been awed by the current of energy building in Colorado. In the last few weeks, who could go a day—an hour--without hearing something about December 6?

A year ago, when we launched the concept, we wanted to enhance giving in Colorado. What we got—what we all got—was so much more than that: community engagement and spirit; nonprofit collaboration; people wanting to be a part of something bigger; and a unified, singular drive to help each other by giving.

And the donors were unstoppable. Despite some website glitches, donors were determined to make their gifts – lots of gifts! More than 52,000 donations flooded GivingFirst.org to the tune of $12 million. That’s an increase of 150 percent over last year’s 20,000 donations.

Thank you to FirstBank for being the corporate partner of every nonprofit’s dream, contributing $500,000 and media buys to the cause.

Thank you to our fabulous media sponsors who raised the public’s awareness of Colorado Gives Day on a grand scale.

Thank you to our Bonus Bucks sponsors who inspired donors and added excitement to the day.

Thank you to the foundations who support nonprofits in extraordinary ways every day, funded the event’s webinars, and were also there to make sure Colorado Gives Day 2011 remained free of processing fees.

And, of course, thank you to the boards and staffs of nearly 1,000 nonprofits who dedicated their energy and creative ideas to make sure Colorado Gives Day was a stunning success.

Thank you Colorado! What a difference a day can make.

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