75 Years of Giving

Josie Burke, El Pomar Foundation

By Josie Burke, Director of Communications, El Pomar Foundation

Philanthropy can be interpreted as many things: hard to pronounce, confusing, reserved for the privileged. When El Pomar Foundation and the Boettcher Foundation got together earlier this year to talk about joining forces to mark our 75th anniversaries that occur within five days this December, we had to confront this perception. And that meant changing the vocabulary. If we were going to meet the goal we set--to celebrate our field by encouraging others to join us-- we had to ditch the big 'P' word.

That is how we settled on giving. Everyone can give, even if everyone doesn't think that philanthropy is open to all. So, you will see that our joint anniversary logo mentions that for 75 years both foundations have been working, building and giving for Colorado. We jettisoned all "p"s, except for the one in our name.

Having whittled the alphabet down to 25 letters, we went about narrowing options to find the kind of collaboration that would, indeed, help move the anniversary from a marker to a milestone. We could not, obviously, have a party. We give away money on a regular basis. It couldn't be a typical grant. It had to encompass a lot people. It could not, under any circumstances, be stuffy.

This logic led us down a path that ended in Arvada. In two short years, the entire foundation community has seen Colorado Gives Day energize a whole state. It was an effort created by a foundation, but brought to life by the thousands who pulled up a chair, turned on a computer and gave. Supporting Colorado Gives Day and GivingFirst.org made so much sense.

We had to put our own spin on it, of course. The prizes offered by El Pomar Foundation and the Boettcher Foundation this year and next will go to non-Metro Denver nonprofits because both foundations are committed to making an impact statewide. To that same end, look for even greater expansion next year, as a grant from El Pomar Foundation and the Boettcher Foundation will allow Community First Foundation to work with specific communities throughout Colorado that want to take local ownership of GivingFirst.org and Colorado Gives Day.

Now that you know the back story, we do hope you will join us in giving to your favorite nonprofit on December 4. We can say, with 150 years of combined experience, that giving is very, very phun.

Comments

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...

$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...

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...

ColoradoGives.org

Search This Blog