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GivingFirst Is ColoradoGives: Reflections on Impermanence

By Bryce Wilkinson, Senior Online Giving Specialist,
Community First Foundation
Bryce Wilkinson

History
Impermanence. Everything we encounter is subject to change. It’s one common aspect of conditioned existence and our site is no exception. When Community First Foundation launched an online giving tool in May 2007, we decided to call it GivingFirst.org. The site was initially focused on nonprofits in the seven county Denver metro area, and by December 2007 it had 173 nonprofits listed on it. As more nonprofits expressed an interest in joining, we started to expand our geographic eligibility requirements, and by the end of 2012 GivingFirst.org featured 1,258 nonprofits from across Colorado. Since the site had expanded well beyond its initial stages in many ways, we started to reflect on the site’s name and whether it still represented what the site had become and was continuing to evolve into; namely, a place for all Coloradans to learn about and support the local nonprofits they loved.

GivingFirst.org Becomes ColoradoGives.org
Given all the changes coupled with the huge success of Colorado Gives Day, we decided it was time to more closely align the site’s statewide appeal with its name. So, in March 2013 we officially changed the name from GivingFirst.org to ColoradoGives.org. We continued to redirect traffic that was still going to GivingFirst.org to accommodate people and nonprofits that had not yet had a chance to update their bookmarks, links, or donate buttons.  There are various costs associated with maintaining redirects, especially for secure sites like GivingFirst.org, and so it is not feasible for us to continue redirecting traffic forever (Community First Foundation is a nonprofit itself and, as a nonprofit, is vigilant about watching its expenses).



Check Your "Donate Now" Button
Change is inevitable. Suffering is not. Make sure your "donate now" button is working properly. If it is, your donors’ desire to give will not be disrupted by the change. If it’s not working, the likelihood of frustration is great, so please finish reading this blog post to learn how to remedy that. Stop reading right now and check (seriously!).    

How to Update Your "Donate Now" Button
To get the current donate button:
  1. Log into ColoradoGives.org as a nonprofit.
  2. Go to Menu/Nonprofit Resources
  3. Click on the "DONATE NOW" button link
  4. Copy the HTML code provided
  5. Paste the HTML code into the HTML of your website where you want the button to appear.

Alternatively, you can insert an image into a webpage and link it to your donation page on ColoradoGives.org.

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