Skip to main content

A Colorado Gives Day Checklist: Steps You Shouldn't Skip

By Angela Bevacqua, Senior Communications Specialist


Are you a nonprofit counting down the days to Colorado Gives Day? If you’re like us, you are. You’ve got your list and you’re checking it twice. Here are our suggestions on what should be, at a minimum, on your check list.

One of 4 places your appeal appears
Make sure your GivingFirst Profile looks great!
  • Submit final changes by Friday, Nov. 16, so that they can be approved and live in time for the big day.
  • Write a compelling “appeal.” 
    • The appeal is a new feature that lets you write a short summary (300 characters or less) of your organization that appears in several place: 1) in the GivingFirst home page when you get a donation, 2) in search results 3) in the checkout cart, and 4) on your profile page. If you don’t write an appeal, your mission statement is the default. 
    • Consider adding a special appeal just for Colorado Gives Day. For example, “The Puppydog Foundation provides low-cost medical services for ailing dogs seven days a week. Help us reach our goal of hiring new staff to serve 20% more dogs with your Colorado Gives Day donation. 100% of your donation will support our programs.”
    • This is also a great place to remind donors about addition tax credits like Enterprise Zone and Child Care Credit because it will show up in the checkout process.

Add a logo to avoid a blank space
Upload your logo
  • Use your logo to attract donors and help with recognition. Spaces for your logo are on the GivingFirst home page, search pages, checkout pages and, of course, your profile. If you don't upload a logo, the space will be blank. Here’s what the search feature looks like when an organization doesn’t include a logo:
Upload compelling photos
    Bold photos and logos look great on profile
  • Do you want people to check out your profile? Upload your best, most engaging photos. Otherwise consider a powerful number reflecting one of your organization’s outcomes.
Make sure your nonprofit’s website is ready
  • Use the GivingFirst “Donate Now button” to help people understand they are going to a new website.
  • Use the pre-made web announcements.
  • Ensure you’re using accurate links. Link people to either your Nonprofit Profile page or Donation page (log on to the Nonprofit Resources page to access the code for your specific donation page).
Use Donate Now button on your website
Make sure you've got the facts right!
Key messages for Colorado Gives Day include:
  • 24 hours to give where you live
  • 100% of every donation goes to charity
  • The FirstBank Incentive Fund increases the value of every dollar donated
  • Colorado Gives Day is presented by Community First Foundation and FirstBank
Last but not least, contact your supporters!
  • Email
  • Phone calls for big supporters
  • And don’t forget to thank them for their donations!

Good luck on December 4 and we’re here to help. Contact us at:
Marketing: abevacqua@CommunityFirstFoundation.org
Technical: givingfirst@CommuntiyFirstFoundation.org

Check out the Nonprofit Toolkit for marketing resources.



Comments

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...

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 conc...

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...