ColoradoGives.org

By Dana Rinderknecht, GivingFirst Manager On January 19 th at the Arvada Center, Community First Foundation awarded the FirstBank High Five Prizes to 12 organizations who did an outstanding job on Colorado Gives Day. There were over 500 folks present and they represented a true cross section of Colorado Nonprofits. Now I will let you in on a little secret. I loved this event! Not only because we put it together, so that makes me biased, but because it is so much fun to see our participants in person. GivingFirst is an online program, and as such we do almost everything electronically – webinars, emails, etc. So I rarely get to talk one-on-one with participants to learn about what they are doing. I read the profiles and the newsletters so I know on a cursory level what is happening. But to hear someone who is passionate about the work they are doing is a whole different phenomenon. To hear the stories of donor calls that happened on Colorado Gives Day , or leading up t...

By Marla J. Williams, president and CEO of Community First Foundation Community First Foundation , FirstBank , media sponsors, and hundreds of nonprofits work all year to pull off a giving day that makes a difference. In the months leading up to Colorado Gives Day , we’ve been awed by the current of energy building in Colorado. In the last few weeks, who could go a day—an hour--without hearing something about December 6? A year ago, when we launched the concept, we wanted to enhance giving in Colorado. What we got—what we all got—was so much more than that: community engagement and spirit; nonprofit collaboration; people wanting to be a part of something bigger; and a unified, singular drive to help each other by giving. And the donors were unstoppable.   Despite some website glitches, donors were determined to make their gifts – lots of gifts!   More than 52,000 donations flooded GivingFirst.org to the tune of $12 million. That’s an increase of 150 percent over...

Recently we met up with Charles “Chic” Naumer , co-founder of CiviCore , the company that programs the online giving technology for GivingFirst.org. We appreciate the ideas they share to help us enhance the site. Their work and dedication to GivingFirst is indispensable, and we are grateful to them for being the technology sponsor of Colorado Gives Day this year. What is CiviCore? Our company builds web-based database applications for the social sector. This includes databases for managing volunteers, donors and client outcomes. Our products are customized for each client’s particular need. When did CiviCore start and where are you located? My business partner, Rich Rainaldi, and I co-founded CiviCore in 2000. Our office is in the heart of downtown Denver and we have over 350 clients in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America and Australia. How did you get involved with Community First Foundation? Community First Foundation hired us four years ago to build the G...

Marla J. Williams This week is Community Foundations week, and we met up with Marla J. Williams , president and CEO of Community First Foundation, to tell us about the value of these organizations.   Marla, this week the country is celebrating community foundations. Can you tell us what a community foundation is? A foundation like Community First Foundation is the vehicle through which a community can come together to create and pool charitable resources and address needs in a specific geographic area. What region does Community First Foundation serve? We make grants to 501(c)(3) organizations in the 7-county Metro Denver area. What is its mission? To improve quality of life by increasing community generosity and involvement. How many grants did the Foundation award last year? Last year we granted $13.4 million to nonprofits in the Denver area. Recently we’ve granted to organizations such as the Denver Office of Drug Strategy to reduce substance ...

By Angela Bevacqua, Senior Communications Specialist We are just under one month away until Colorado Gives Day, and the energy at Community First Foundation is frenetic! Dana, our GivingFirst manager, has been sequestered in her office, reviewing and approving hundreds of nonprofits who are joining the site since September. She juggles approving the profiles while answering lots of calls and emails each day. (Stay tuned to this blog for the final number of nonprofits participating in CO Gives Day!) Bryce, our project coordinator, is pouring over nonprofit documents that need to be in order before a new profile goes live. Caitlin, our new communications manager, is a blur as she darts through the office, getting incredible media coverage lined up for the weeks leading up to the big day. I am fielding numerous emails about marketing tools and planning for a January Colorado Gives Day celebration for nonprofit participants (details TBA)-- where High Five prize winners w...

By Dana Rinderknecht, GivingFirst Manager I wanted to title this “Why I love GivingFirst.org .” But then I wondered if it is wrong for the person responsible for the website to tell you why she loves it. This time of year, for the second year in a row, is just crazy at Community First Foundation. Things are extremely exciting as we get everything ready for December 6, our second Colorado Gives Day . My main job right now is to review all of the newly submitted profiles for those who would like to become GivingFirst participants. For those of you who have no idea what that means, let me give you a quick overview. Each nonprofit that you find on GivingFirst.org has gone through a process of entering information about what exactly they do. This information includes who sits on their board of directors and then statistics about that board, such as what percent support the organization financially. It also includes information on each of their programs, including how they measure succ...

By Angela Bevacqua, Communications Specialist In our last blog we talked about Bonus Bucks—$1,000 prizes that will be awarded on Colorado Gives Day from a random drawing of donor names. But we’re also offering another kind of prize. Prizes nonprofits can earn—and use as goals for their organization. These little windfalls of cash—worth $5,000 each--are called High-Five prizes and are generously funded by corporate partner FirstBank . 12 prizes will be awarded, adding $60,000 more to the pot of Colorado Gives Day prize money. So how can a nonprofit win one of these prizes? First you need to know that there are four categories of prizes. Within each category there will be three winners . The Prize Categories are: Most Donors on Colorado Gives Day (3 winners) Most Dollars Raised on Colorado Gives Day (3 winners) Largest Percent Increase in Dollars over CO Gives Day 2010 (3 winners) Most Dollars Raised Through GivingFirst Fundraising Pages on Col...