Skip to main content

Digging Through the Data: What to Look for in a Nonprofit Profile

By Lisa Lujan, Online Giving Coordinator, Community First Foundation

With over 1,600 nonprofits on our site, the process of deciding where to donate your money on Colorado Gives Day can be both daunting and exciting. This is especially difficult if you don’t know who you want to support.

The first place to start is to search for something of interest to you. Perhaps you've heard the name of a nonprofit or a cause you’re passionate about. Let’s say, for example, that I heard about “Community First Foundation” and was interested in learning more about them. I simply type in the term “Community First Foundation” on the main page of ColoradoGives.org and click “go.”

After entering in my query, I see they’re one of the first nonprofits listed. Next to their name and logo, I can read the appeal. Think of the appeal as their "sound bite" or "elevator speech." 

If I’m interested in learning more, I click on the “learn more” link, which takes me to the nonprofit's main page. “Wow,” I think to myself, “there is a lot of information here, where do I start?” This brings us to next tip:

Explore the Overview tab where you can learn what’s new with the organization. Read testimonials, statements from the organization (such as needs, impact and background) and financial graphs. There may even be a video for you to watch (scrolling across the page).

Perhaps at this point you’re excited but want just a tidbit more about the organization. This brings us to our next area to check out:

Programs – Here you can read details about the nonprofit's programs and how they define and monitor short- and long-term success. Some programs may include photos.

For detail-seekers, the rest of the information is really for you. Details included in the following tabs are:

Management: How the organization operates, including number of staff, retention rates and names of senior staff members, board statistics and award information.
Financials: Perfect for the CPA or finance guru; details here include endowment or capital campaign information, tax credit details (if applicable), specifics on the past three fiscal years, and current fiscal year projections.
Documents: Here you can find 990s, Secretary of State Documents, Policies and more, as the nonprofit has chosen to make public.
Event: If you love the nonprofit and want to learn all about upcoming events check out the events tab. A subcategory under this tab is Volunteer Activities where you can learn about potential opportunities to volunteer.
Super Campaigns: This tab shows any large campaigns (such as 5Ks) where the whole organization is participating. Exploring this page will lead you to fundraising pages associated with that specific campaign.

Start today at ColoradoGives.org and learn more about who you’d like to support!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
1 comment
Read more

$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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more