ColoradoGives.org

By Kayla Arnesen, Director of Strategic Communications Six community-minded organizations are participating in the first-ever Colorado Gives Day Corporate Challenge .  This new program challenges Colorado businesses, and their employees, to take an active, public role in supporting local nonprofits on Colorado Gives Day . Here’s how it works: businesses sign up and determine an employee participation goal. This tells us the number of employees they expect to donate for Colorado Gives Day. Employers receive a unique code for their employees to enter when making donations online at ColoradoGives.org . That’s how we track participation. Then, each business gets to work promoting Colorado Gives Day internally using a turnkey toolkit provided by the ColoradoGives team. It’s that simple and straightforward. On Colorado Gives Day, business names, and their progress toward reaching 100 percent participation, are listed on the Corporate Challenge web page , part of ColoradoGiv...

By Dana Rinderknecht, Director of Online Giving, Community First Foundation With more than $81 million raised online in seven years, ColoradoGives.org and Colorado Gives Day are helping shape philanthropy in Colorado. Online Giving has been concentrated in the Denver metro area until two years ago, when the Boettcher Foundation and the El Pomar Foundation came to us looking for a way to celebrate their 75th anniversaries while increasing charitable giving in Colorado. And that’s how the Regional Champion program was born. ColoradoGives Regional Champion s are primarily community foundations located throughout Colorado the have joined us to raise awareness and support for the nonprofits in their local communities through ColoradoGives and Colorado Gives Day. They use their local knowledge to adapt the programs to fit their particular area. First to jump on board was the Northern Colorado Community Foundation in Fort Collins. Serving Larimer County communities such as Bertho...

By Angela Bevacqua, Senior Communications Specialist Sometimes you just can’t wait.  That’s why you can schedule Colorado Gives Day donations in advance from November through December 8. Take your time, explore the variety of nonprofits serving your community, and schedule donations at your leisure. Your donation will process on Colorado Gives Day, December 9, and will receive a boost from the $ 1 Million Incentive Fund and count toward cashprize tallies for nonprofits. Are you ready? Here’s how it’s done: Go to ColoradoGives.org . Search for nonprofits by name, keyword, city, zip code or type of cause. Find a nonprofit to support and press the orange “Donate” button. Add your donation amount and press the “CO Gives Day” button to schedule it to process on Dec. 9. Complete the other fields and click “add to cart.” Want to donate to more than one organization? Click on the “add more nonprofits to cart” button on the next page and keep going! Schedule ...

By Angela Bevacqua, Senior Communications Specialist Nonprofits featured on ColoradoGives.org are working diligently to prepare for Colorado Gives Day , coming up on Tuesday, December 9! As you prepare, keep in mind the following new website enhancements. Many of these improvements came directly from avid users of ColoradoGives.org . Suggest Donation Amounts on Your Checkout Page. You can now insert one or more recommended donation amounts with a description that will appear on the checkout page associated with your nonprofit. Log in to ColoradoGives.org as a nonprofit, go to the General Information section, select the Donation Form tab, and click add entry under the header Donation Levels. Create New Options to Direct Donations. Until recently, nonprofits were allowed limited options for directing donations through ColoradoGives.org . Examples included “Nonprofit’s Discretion” and program names. Now you can offer donors additional options, such as special projects or ca...

By Angela Bevacqua, Senior Communications Specialist, Community First Foundation Each year the Nonprofit Toolkit —a web page for Colorado Gives Day marketing tools—gets stronger thanks to suggestions from nonprofits. This year we’ve added more short, informational videos and some select marketing materials in Spanish . Cesco Linguistic Services donated their expertise to translate our key messages for the graphics, such as the tagline “Give Where You Live.”  We can now offer you a Facebook "I donated!" badge and cover graphic, newsletter copy, key messages, print and web ads and a Donate Now button. And remember that your Spanish audiences can turn on a Spanish version of ColoradoGives.org by selecting the Spanish language option through Google Translate in the site’s footer. Access the Spanish tools , and keep your suggestions coming! Web Ad "Donate Now Through ColoradoGives.org" Button "I Gave" Facebook Badge

By Angela Bevacqua, Community First Foundation Our most popular Colorado Gives Day webinars are the ones where seasoned nonprofits share their experiences and success stories. Our latest webinar, Creative Marketing: How Three Nonprofits Met Their Goals on Colorado Gives Day , features organizations with very different missions but a common thread: creativity and thoughtful planning. If you missed it live, watch the 75 min. recording for inspiration and smart, practical advice. Here is a highlight of top tips courtesy of Autumn Bjugstad with The Greenway Foundation , Dan Hanley with Urban Peak , and Nancy Shane with Walking Mountains Science Center . 1. Stand out from the crowd Tell or show how your nonprofit is different. Personalize the Colorado Gives Day message.Do your social media groundwork 2. Build a social media following well in advance of Colorado Gives Day Make a social media plan and have fun with it.  3. Don’t be afraid to tap into your creative si...

By Angela Bevacqua, Senior Communications Specialist, Community First Foundation After a collective sigh of relief that our ColoradoGives profiles are done (yes, we prepare one, too), it’s onward to more fun things! Now is when many of you will start implementing your marketing plan for Colorado Gives Day. Use This Pre-Made Ad For starters, revisit the Planning Timeline we created to help you prepare month by month. We also encourage you to make friends with the Nonprofit Toolkit where you’ll find key messages , logos , pre-made ads , educational recordings and a lot more. A great refresher would be to watch the following series of short Colorado Gives Day videos: The Key Facts Show this 2+ minute video to volunteers, staff and anyone who needs a basic introduction to Colorado Gives Day. Marketing - Best Practices This 6.5 minute video is a MUST for anyone responsible for CO Gives Day marketing communications and development. The Nonprofit Toolkit This video outl...