Colorado Gives Day Sets New Record

Marla J. Williams

By Marla J. Williams, president and CEO, Community First Foundation and
Stephanie Tuthill, board chair, Community First Foundation

Coloradans, you are amazing! Congratulations and thank you for setting a new Colorado Gives Day record. In an inspiring demonstration of support for more than 1,200 Colorado nonprofits, you came forward from across the state to contribute $15 million on Colorado Gives Day 2012. This is an increase of 20 percent over last year. And this means that over the course of the last three Colorado Gives Days you have teamed together to donate more than $35 million.

Stephanie Tuthill

We hope you feel good about the impact you are making—Individuals like you gave from $10 to $200,000 and each one of those dollars is truly valued by the nonprofits that do important work every day across our state. Work that brings food, shelter and medical services to those who would otherwise go without; work that protects our environment, improves schools, and enriches our culture through music and the arts.
We have seen increases in numbers of donors, donations and nonprofits benefiting from charitable giving—all because of you.

To the first-time donor, thank you for coming on board. To the returning Colorado Gives Day donor, thank you for your loyalty and devotion to Colorado nonprofits. We asked you to ”Give Where You Live” – and you did.

To our Colorado Gives Day media sponsors—The Networks of 9NEWS, Comcast, Entravision Communications, Clear Channel, Colorado Public Television (CPT 12, Channel 12), Rocky Mountain PBS and 5280 Magazine—thank you for getting the word out in a big way.

To our corporate partner FirstBank, our wonderful foundation partners and local businesses as well as new Colorado Gives Day partners El Pomar Foundation and Boettcher Foundation—thank you for believing in Colorado Gives Day and our nonprofit community, and helping make this day a reality.

On Dec. 4, we came together and demonstrated once more that through our combined generosity we can accomplish amazing things.

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Blog 1: Tips on How to Read Form 990

By Angela Bevacqua, Senior Communications Specialist Have you ever been advised to look at a nonprofit’s Form 990 before making a donation? Then you look at it and wonder how to make sense of it all? If you aren’t an accountant or nonprofit administrator, you may avoid the daunting task. On our online giving website ColoradoGives.org, we require nonprofits to provide several documents, including the Form 990 as appropriate, to encourage transparency about their programs and finances. We don’t evaluate nonprofits on the website; we require nonprofits to share information to help donors make informed decisions about giving. I asked Community First Foundation’s finance department to help us interpret this useful document. We will do this in two blogs: Blog 1 shares the basics of Form 990 and Blog 2 delves deeper. Q: What exactly is the Form 990? Form 990, called the Return of Organizations Exempt From Income Tax, must be filed with the IRS each year by charitable organization

$36.1 million raised on Colorado Gives Day!

Marla J. Williams, president and CEO, Community First Foundation Thank you, Colorado! I appreciate the opportunity to reflect on another year of extraordinary giving. As you know, earlier this week on Colorado Gives Day people from across our state and around the country opened their hearts to give. Their generosity resulted in $36,129,285 million in donations to 2,309 Colorado nonprofit organizations. This record-breaking amount surpassed last year’s Colorado Gives Day total, which raised an impressive $33.8 million. Since its debut in 2010, Colorado Gives Day has raised more than $181 million for Colorado nonprofits. One thing is clear: generous donors and the nonprofits that inspire them are the heart of Colorado Gives Day. Although Community First Foundation provides the giving platform, participating nonprofits have taken ownership of this event and spread the word far and wide, which is the main Colorado Gives Day success story. Through your efforts every year, mo

Colorado Gives Day: Reflections from Nonprofits

By Angela Bevacqua, Communications Specialist Two months later and we’re still learning from Colorado Gives Day 2010. As we pour through data and listen to the experiences of our nonprofit friends and donors, we gain new insights about fundraising and philanthropy in Colorado. At a recent gathering of our Nonprofit Advisory Committee—a varied group of GivingFirst nonprofits that help us improve the program—we heard these reflections about The Day: Dan Hanley, director of development for Boulder County AIDS Project , said that 45% of their donations on Dec. 8 were from new donors. The agency raised more than $20,000 from 178 donations after a whirlwind of events. Dan said there are limitless ways in which you can promote your agency for Colorado Gives Day. They began soliciting support in the late-night hours of Dec. 7 at a bar in Denver, then moved on to the Denver Diner in the a.m., then several coffee shops in Boulder, and ended with a standing-room-only concert at the Boulder

ColoradoGives.org

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