It’s not just the $12.4 million that was raised through Colorado Gives Day 2011 that’s so phenomenal; equally impressive were the lengths some organizations went through to entice donors and how the dollars they received will be spent.
The staff at Colorado Environmental Coalition, for example, persuaded executive director Elise Jones to dress up like a fairy princess — poufy white gown, tiara and wand — then ride a 16th Street Mall shuttle bus to the state Capitol and recite an original poem that encouraged CEC supporters to make electronic donations to GivingFirst.org. The episode was recorded and posted to You Tube.
Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver is going to use the $85,000 it received to build a house for a single mom and her three children. It will be called the Colorado Gives Day House and the staff of Community First Foundation has volunteered to help with the construction.
Reach Out and Read received enough money to not only fund 2,900 pediatric checkups for children from low-income families, but to give each of the children a book.
Anecdotes like these were plentiful at Bravo! A Colorado Gives Day Celebration, held Thursday evening at the Arvada Center.
“Given the economy, we weren’t sure how things would go,” admitted the president and CEO of the sponsoring Community First Foundation, Marla Williams. “But tens of thousands of donors reached a little deeper and made a huge difference for the 928 nonprofits who participated.” By comparison, the first Colorado Gives Day, in 2010, raised $8.7 million for 529 charities.
Although Colorado Gives Day is technically a 24-hour affair, the sheer volume of donors Dec. 7 caused the website to crash and so it remained open for a 36-hour period, which proved beneficial to Lutheran Family Services.
Vice president Jane Pope Meehan shared how a call came in on Dec. 7 from “a very sweet elderly lady” in Alamosa who had seen an announcement about Colorado Gives Day in her church bulletin. “She was very disappointed she had missed it,” Meehan said, “but we told her the good news about the extended time and walked her through the online process. When it came to the part where she was to indicate the gift amount, she said ‘I would like to donate $20,000.’ She had never been a donor before but was touched by the work we do. Amazing!”
Development director Val Lunka said Advocates for Children was on track to receive $45,000 in donations when longtime supporter Kay Johnson and her husband, geologist Mike Johnson, fired up their computer and logged in with a cool $200,000. “Thanks to the Johnsons, we are going to be able to serve even more (abused and neglected) children this year,” Lunka said.
The recipient charities were divided into three groups, according to their size: Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3.
The smallest agency with the largest number of donors was Colorado Animal Rescue Express, with 199 contributors; the largest was Denver Rescue Mission, with 1,137 donations. Littleton Public Schools Foundation was the Tier 1 winner for most dollars raised ($118,315); and Tier 3 winner Tennyson Center for Children raised $691,267.
Progressive Health Center saw largest percentage increase in dollars for Tier 1 agencies (from $30 in 2010 to $31,000 in 2011) while YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region went from $20 in 2010 to $23,325 in 2011.
The 500-plus who attended Bravo! A Colorado Gives Day Celebration were treated to entertainment by Penguin Rodeo, a six-man band headed by Swallow Hill Music executive director Tom Scharf, and scenes from favorite plays by the Christian Youth Theater — Denver.
Colorado Gives Day also is presented by FirstBank Colorado and is designed not only to encourage charitable giving but to build awareness of and support for the state’s numerous nonprofit organizations.
“This was our first year participating in Colorado Gives Day,” said Brian Colonna of Buntport Theater, “and it proved to be a very effective fundraising tool. We are a small theater company that relies very much on the support of our community, and (the money we received through Colorado Gives Day) certainly takes pressure off of our annual budget. With this breathing room, we can stay focused on our mission: creating new theater that we can offer at affordable, inclusive prices.”
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, blogs.denverpost.com/davidson and twitter.com/GetItWrite
