ColoradoGives.org

Lisa Lujan, Online Giving Coordinator My heart sank as I read the thank you letter. It was addressed to me, when I had hoped it would be addressed to my four-year-old who had specifically chosen an organization as  “her” nonprofit to give to on Colorado Gives Day . I had even left details in the special instructions section detailing my daughter’s involvement and her name. She would’ve been so excited to get mail addressed specifically to and thanking her! Talk about a great opportunity to begin a life-long relationship. Alas, that is not what happened. Which brings me to the point of this blog: do you know your donors’ data? The ColoradoGives program at Community First Foundation has declared 2017 “The Year of Thanking Donors.” You can take donor appreciation to the next level by intimately understanding every donation you receive. In the Donation Information section of your ColoradoGives profile, you can pull an Excel report 45 columns worth of  information. Here are th...

Samantha Barlow, Communications Coordinator When nine-year-old Jenna received a $20 Giving eCard to use on KidsforColoradoGives.org , she did something remarkable. Rather than donate this money straightaway, she took it to her school so her classmates could join her in experiencing the joy of giving. “We had a lot of fun,” said Jenna. “We learned about all the charities around here in Colorado. We had no idea there were so many!” Jenna received the Giving eCard from a Community First Foundation board member, Janet Heck Doyle. The Foundation recently launched KidsforColoradoGives.org , an online giving site for kids. “I thought a lot about who to give the eCard to since I don’t have young kids,” said Janet. “I knew Jenna from the Rotary Club and thought, ‘What better way to use this than to introduce her family to the site?’ Little did I know it would mean introducing a whole classroom to KidsforColoradoGives.org.” KidsforColoradoGives.org is a kid-friendly c...

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...

By Chic Naumer, CEO, CiviCore Our family tradition is to gather around the computer and participate in Colorado Gives Day — the online, 24 hour day of giving  —   together. This past year was different...in a great way. Our two daughters, Stella and Claire, donated through the new KidsforColoradoGives.org website, the kid-friendly sister site of ColoradoGives.org . We gave Stella and Claire a budget and emailed each of them a Giving eCard to use on the kid site. They loved the autonomy of spending “their own money” and excitedly began planning how many organizations they wanted to give to and how much money they would have for each. They dove into the process of researching causes and organizations. Stella, age 10, is interested in environmental and animal issues. Claire, age nine, is interested in helping people with disabilities and is a big supporter of the Anchor Center for Blind Children. They each spent an hour reading the profiles about different organiz...

By Lisa Lujan, Online Giving Coordinator You’ve always wanted your nonprofit to participate, but it just hasn’t worked out before. Well, this is your chance! It is that time of year again, ColoradoGives.org enrollment time, from March 1 – July 31. Nervous about the process? No need to be! This quick guide gives you an overview in three steps. (If you’re a details person, check out our Overview of Process to Create a Profile . ) Visit the ColoradoGives.org Enrollment Page . Here you’ll learn several key pieces of information; it’s important to not skim this page. Really dig into the weeds and read the details. One of the key pieces of content is a listing of the Intro Session dates. You must sign up for one of these webinars in order to participate in the program, so be sure to get it on your calendar ASAP. The first Intro Session is March 14 at 9 a.m. and the last is July 31, 2017 at 3 p.m. Another key piece of content on the Enrollment Page is our Eligibility Requir...

By Kayla Arnesen, Director of Marketing & Strategic Communications Last December, did you tweet about #COGivesDay? Did you post a yard sign? Did you share a ColoradoGives news story with a friend? If you did, then thank you for being part of Colorado Gives Day’s marketing magic! Colorado Gives Day is more than just a day, it’s a statewide movement to inspire giving. One of the greatest benefits of being a ColoradoGives nonprofit in December is being able to market your organization as part of the state’s largest day of giving. At Community First Foundation, the marketing and communications team worked to elevate excitement for Colorado Gives Day to a fever pitch leading up to December 6, 2016. The results were outstanding: generous donors gave $33.8 million to more than 2,000 nonprofits on ColoradoGives.org . We wanted to share a few fun highlights! Media relations and community outreach from August to December 2016 resulted in: 759 news stories for a total pot...

By Dana Rinderknecht, Director of Online Giving I spend a great deal of time talking to nonprofits and donors; it is the best part of my job. Telling complete strangers what I do can result in some truly amazing stories about why they donate on Colorado Gives Day. My favorite was the donor who told me she thought it should be a national holiday! My least favorite thing is to hear from donors who love giving, but then never receive a thank you from the organization. We need to celebrate and appreciate these donors who take the time to go to ColoradoGives.org, search for their favorite nonprofits and make a gift. Community First Foundation sends each donor their receipt, but it is still the responsibility of individual nonprofits to thank these donors. It is the nonprofit’s responsibility to cultivate relationships with donors to turn them into long-term supporters. As we move into 2017, let’s all set the goal of making this the year of thanking donors. The #GivingTuesday mo...