Colorado Gives Day 2011 Raises $12 Million For Charities

Issue: Resource Management Section: Collaboration Close Up

Quest for Excellence 2011

Colorado Gives Day is an initiative that was created by the Community First Foundation to increase philanthropy in the state of Colorado. On December 8th, 2010, in its inaugural year, Colorado Gives Day rallied over 12,500 individual donors to log in to its online platform GivingFirst.org to raise $8.4 million in just 24 hours for 529 nonprofits in Colorado. In its second year the organization exceeded the previous year’s total, raising $12 million for over 900 nonprofits in the state.

What is so unique about Colorado Gives Day is the platform, GivingFirst.org, that was created to ensure that 100 percent of each donation made on the site goes directly to the nonprofit of the donor’s choice. The site, which is sponsored by Community First Foundation, helps to simplify the donation process by grouping nonprofits into easy to find categories based on a donor’s interest, making it easy to visit one place and give.

Similar to last year, on Colorado Gives Day 2011 the processing fees associated with giving online were covered by Community First Foundation, FirstBank and 10 other Colorado foundations so that 100 percent of Colorado Gives Day donations went directly to the participating non-profits.

Offering additional support, FirstBank provided a financial incentive by committing a half million dollars in contributions, including a $300,000 Incentive Fund, which was proportionally allocated across all donations received, increasing each donation’s value. During an interview with Jim Reuter, Executive Vice President of FirstBank, he explained that, “In addition to that, we've pledged $140,000 to help cover credit card processing fees, $60,000 to reward nonprofits for their fundraising efforts.” Participating organizations built incredible momentum for Colorado Gives Day’s second successful year. With statewide support GivingFirst.org experienced high donor traffic causing technical issues, which extended the giving period from December 6th into the following day, allowing more donors to access the giving platform, bringing the event to an outrageously successful grand total of $12 million for those in need across the state.

“Because we exceeded our 2010 goal by such a staggering amount, we figured the sky was the limit for Colorado Gives Day 2011,” said Marla J. Williams, President and CEO of Community First Foundation. “We’re thrilled to see increases in the number of donors, donations and nonprofits benefiting from this period of charitable giving.”