ColoradoGives.org

By Mike Jackson I love Colorado! I’ve lived in this state more than 30 years and appreciate the gift we all share of living in this beautiful place. As the director of nonprofit relations and services, I help nonprofit organizations look for funding, invest for their future, and prepare for tomorrow. I regularly meet with nonprofit professionals who work day-in-and-day-out to tell their organization’s story and recruit charitable support from the public. What always stands out to me is both the good work being done and the amount of work there is to do. From feeding the hungry to protecting the environment, the need is out there. But the resources just aren’t keeping up. With the launch of Colorado Gives Day —our initiative to help Colorado nonprofits through online giving—we are reaching out to local businesses for support. I’m especially impressed with FirstBank, our presenting partner. FirstBank is a local Colorado company. Their investment in the nonprofit sector over the...

By Dana Rinderknecht, GivingFirst Manager We all hear it over and over again – you need to craft a clear, concise, compelling message about your organization. At the same time, the Internet is overwhelming with the amount of information that you can find, let alone try to digest. I know that when I am searching for information, if I don’t find it immediately, I am on to the next place. If it is really important to me and I think I’m on the right track, I may click a couple more times, but it has to be something I really need or want. My attention span can be that of an infant or a gnat. So, my nonprofit friends, as you start to work on your GivingFirst profile for the first time, or if you are looking at it again after some time, put on your donor internet-user glasses. Open up your profile or that of an organization you know and click around. What do you look at first? What catches your eye? What do you wish was included? As a donor, the items I tend to look for most often are: numb...

By Dana Rinderknecht Can you believe it is almost the end of July? For those of us in the nonprofit world, that means plans are under way for annual campaigns and year-end giving. It is time to get ready for the Giving Season. Are you ready? You probably have your direct mail/annual letter campaign designs started. Perhaps you even have it at the printers or even the mail house. Hours have been spent making sure that everything looks just right and that you are sending a message that will resonate with your donors and those who support you and care for your organization (or at least joined your database at one point!). But what happens once that campaign drops and gets into the hands of those supporters? The Nonprofit Times did a study that found that more and more people are heading to the web for information before they make a donation. In fact, according to their research, 44% of respondents are looking on the Internet, up from 25% just three years ago. So that means your webs...

By Angela Bevacqua We hope that many of you have heard about Colorado Gives Day —a new initiative we launched in May. As the name implies, Colorado Gives Day is a specific day of the year—December 8—that we will be asking residents to support the work of Colorado nonprofits that is so important to our quality of life. Here’s more about Colorado Gives Day directly from our president and CEO, Kenneth Eggeman, Ph.D. AB: Why does Colorado need a special “giving day”? KE: To spur interest, to spur excitement, to really help people become aware of the condition of philanthropy in Colorado. A “giving” day creates an opportunity for as many people as possible to become aware of the situation and do something about it. AB: What is the condition of giving in our state? KE: Based on the Colorado Nonprofit Association’s  State of Giving study , Colorado ranks 38th in charitable contributions compared to other states. I know we can do better, especially given the fact that w...

By Angela Bevacqua Welcome to our new blog! We plan to discuss topics related to philanthropy, online giving, and GivingFirst in particular. We also hope to share perspectives from a variety of people here at the Foundation. But what’s on our minds right now are the results from recent giving studies. The bad news is that the Giving USA Foundation and Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University  reported that charitable giving from individuals, corporations and foundations was down 3.6% in 2009 over 2008. The hardest hit areas were religion, arts/culture/humanities, education, and public-society benefit. Individual giving in particular was down .4% But the good news is that online giving continues to climb. A study by the software firm Convio indicates that online giving was up 14% in 2009 among the charities they reviewed. In fact, 92% received more donations online in 2009 than 2008. This comes as no surprise to us. In fact, our data through GivingFirst.org is showing ...