Skip to main content

The Real People Behind the Scenes

Meet the Online Giving Team


Ever wonder what’s happening behind the scenes on Colorado Gives Day? Answering questions, processing donations and communicating progress is an all-hands-on-deck affair at Community First Foundation, but there are three staff members who really keep the ColoradoGives.org wheels turning, today and every day. Meet the online giving team!

 Meet Dana Rinderknecht, director of online giving
Q. What’s your role on the team?
A. I raise awareness of the program and keep it moving forward with exciting new ideas like KidsforColoradoGives.org.

Q. What’s the coolest thing about ColoradoGives.org most people don’t know?
A. That you can set up ongoing, regular donations to your favorite nonprofit to support them year-round. This gives them funds they can rely on and helps you spread out your cost.

Q. What are your personal charitable passions?
A. For me, it’s about making the world a better place.

Q. What are you most looking forward to doing the day after ColoradoGives Day – December 7?
A. Sleeping. I also look forward to hearing amazing stories from nonprofits about what happened on Colorado Gives Day.

Q. If you could go on a “friend date” with any celebrity, who would it be and what would you do?
A. I would go for wine with Madeline Albright.


Meet Bryce Wilkinson, senior online giving specialist
Q. What’s your role on team?
A. I address donor questions and help resolve any donation issues. I also assist nonprofits with updating and completing their profiles and work with all the data associated with the website.  

Q. What’s the coolest thing about ColoradoGives.org most people don’t know?
A. It is a year-round program, so people can donate 24 hours a day, every day of the year – not only on Colorado Gives Day!

Q. What are your personal charitable passions?
A. Education and civil rights.

Q. What are you most looking forward to doing the day after ColoradoGives Day – December 7?
A. Picking up some game-worn Colorado Rapids gear at their supporters’ sale.    

Q. If you could go on a “friend date” with any celebrity, who would it be and what would you do?
A. I’d get a pizza with Lionel Messi.


Meet Lisa Lujan, online giving coordinator
Q. What’s your role on the team?
A. I help donors and nonprofits with questions they have about the ColoradoGives program, donations or nonprofit profiles. I also manage ColoradoGives communications, such as our newsletter and social media posts.

Q. What’s the coolest thing about ColoradoGives.org most people don’t know?       
A. We’re working to improve our process on an ongoing basis. I don’t think a lot of people know just how passionate we are about serving our community to the best of our ability and how hard we work to ensure nonprofits and donors get the best service we can provide.

Q. What are your personal charitable passions?
A. This is always changing for me. As I grow older and more involved in the community, I find more things I am passionate about. Right now some of my passions include education, the arts, helping people with disabilities and public media.

Q. What are you most looking forward to doing the day after ColoradoGives Day – December 7?
A. Celebrating the final results!

Q. If you could go on a “friend date” with any celebrity, who would it be and what would you do?

A. Tough question! Probably one of my favorite comedians. I’d love to just sit with one of them and shoot the breeze over a cup of something delicious so I could thank them for how much joy their jokes have brought to my life.
Labels:

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

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...
Post a Comment
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