Skip to main content

Why I get excited about GivingFirst


By Dana Rinderknecht, GivingFirst Manager
I wanted to title this “Why I love GivingFirst.org.” But then I wondered if it is wrong for the person responsible for the website to tell you why she loves it.
This time of year, for the second year in a row, is just crazy at Community First Foundation. Things are extremely exciting as we get everything ready for December 6, our second Colorado Gives Day. My main job right now is to review all of the newly submitted profiles for those who would like to become GivingFirst participants.
For those of you who have no idea what that means, let me give you a quick overview. Each nonprofit that you find on GivingFirst.org has gone through a process of entering information about what exactly they do. This information includes who sits on their board of directors and then statistics about that board, such as what percent support the organization financially. It also includes information on each of their programs, including how they measure success and what are their short and long term goals. It is a great process for nonprofits to go through to evaluate themselves. I hear from those working through the process that it has been a great way for them to reflect on where they are. From new employees, I hear it is a great way for them to learn about the organization.

Once a nonprofit has entered all their information they click on a button that says ”Submit for Review.” Then it becomes my job to look at this information and ensure that it is complete. I also pull information from up to three years of 990s so that donors can get a complete picture of their financials.
This is why I love GivingFirst.  We have created a site where nonprofits can enter information about what they do and then donors can go in and review it. We are not judging the nonprofits. We want the donors to make up their own minds. We want donors to go in and learn as much as they can about the nonprofits in their community doing the work that fuels their passion.

Every day I get to do that. I get to review the information that nonprofits put into their profiles, see that is it complete but also see what really amazing things are happening in communities around the state. Now, I am the first to say that there are nonprofits on our site that don’t match my passions. But I love reading and learning about the work they do, putting them out there for donors to learn more about what they do.
I also am excited with the tools we have created to give donors more ways to give to the nonprofits. Do they know that they can make a recurring donation? That means that they can come onto the site and chose a favorite nonprofit(s) and give to them weekly, monthly or whatever works into their budget.

We have also created fundraising pages. I call these the “I’m going to run a marathon" pages. This is a way for me to raise money for my favorite charity from my friends and family. I can do this if I do actually run a marathon or if it is my birthday or because it is Colorado Gives Day! Finally, I can also purchase a gift card for a friend, family member or business associate. This allows them to choose their favorite nonprofit. What a great way to thank those who support you in what you do while being philanthropic.
So that is why I love GivingFirst.org. What a great resource! If I do say so my biased self!

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 organiza...
1 comment
Read more

Your SOS Certificate of Registration and Sour Milk

It happens; we have all done it: forgotten milk in the fridge that goes bad, expires. If you had milk that was expiring on 6.15.2014, would you continue to drink it on 8.20.2014? You could but it would probably be pretty gross; thus no longer serving its original purpose of being healthy and delicious. As a person who always found the concept of the “renew by” date on the Secretary of State (SOS) Certificate of Registration  for charities and fundraisers a little confusing, it helps me to compare it to this concept of milk expiring. Think of the “ renew by ” date on your Certificate of Registration as an expiration date . If you had milk that expired on 6.15.2014, you would make sure that you bought more milk with an expiration date later than that. Your organization’s SOS Certificate of Registration is pretty similar. If your “renew by” date expired on 6.15.2014, as long as you file an extension with the Secretary of State’s office before then and the “renew by” date on...
2 comments
Read more

Meeting Space Celebrity Sighting: Natalie Portman

Valerie Brown, Meeting Space Administrator I met Natalie Portman in the Community First Foundation Meeting Space yesterday. Natalie Portman (L) and Valerie Brown in the Foundation's free Meeting Space Okay, not the Natalie Portman of Star Wars , V for Vendetta and Black Swan . This Natalie Portman is a top-notch meeting facilitator who was working with a group advancing Mental Health First Aid in Jefferson County. Led by Jefferson Center for Mental Health, the group met in our largest meeting room to discuss training community members on how to identify persons who may benefit from mental health resources. Jefferson Center for Mental Health is one of the dizzying array of nonprofits to have come through our doors since we opened the Meeting Space a year ago! February 2016 saw one meeting lasting four hours with six people. February 2017 saw 37 meetings for a total of 250 hours with 799 people through the door! In fact, in the first year we have hosted 269 mee...
2 comments
Read more