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But the big bucks can be elusive, and when they do appear it can be a big surprise for the recipient agency.

Take last week, for example, when at the 19th annual Awards for Excellence Banquet, El Pomar Foundation chairman William J. Hybl announced that the cash component of the Spencer and Julie Penrose Award for Outstanding Nonprofit Organization was being doubled — from $25,000 to $50,000 — because the recipient, the Glenwood Springs-based Computers for Kids Foundation, was a “standard-bearer for excellence.”

The money, executive director Kirsten McDaniel noted, comes at a particularly good time because C4K is in the midst of trying to raise $200,000 for a new center and expanded programs.

In its six-year life, C4K has put computers into the hands of 1,400 children from low-income households in Mesa, Garfield, Pitkin and Eagle counties. It also prepares young people for technology-oriented futures by pairing computer-savvy high school students with area nonprofits and small businesses in need of technology-related solutions and by hosting build-your-own workshops that give kids a chance to assemble their own computers from refurbished parts.

El Pomar also gave $15,000 awards to PHAMALy (the Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League); Rise School of Denver; the Inner City Health Center; and Brent’s Place. Grants of $7,500 went to KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy, the Young Americans Center for Financial Education, Environmental Learning for Kids, Colorado Neurological Institute, Denver Health, Judi’s House, Special Olympics Colorado, the Listen Foundation, Red Shield Community Center and Third Way Center. Attorney General John Suthers received the Ben S. Wendelken Special Trustees Award, Denver Art Museum director Lewis Sharp was given the Shrine of the Sun Award, and the Gov. John A. Love Award went to Mike Shaw Automotive.

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