We recently asked the Colorado Gives nonprofits to complete a survey and share feedback, ideas, and opportunities for how we can do better. One section of the survey included a series of true or false questions. While we continue to digest the incredible nuggets of information in the survey results, people want to know the answers to these statements. Here they are!

FirstBank started Colorado Gives Day.  False
Community First Foundation started Colorado Gives Day. True
ColoradoGives.org org is a stand-alone online fundraising platform not affiliated with any other organization.  False

ColoradoGives.org started in 2007, the same year the first iPad came out. Online fundraising was a relatively new idea at the time but we believed it was going to become critical to nonprofit success. We wanted to help nonprofits stay cost-effective and safe while leveraging emerging trends and technologies.

Once we built the online tool, we realized that nonprofits needed help finding new donors and Colorado Gives Day was born in 2010. FirstBank was our founding corporate partner for the 24-hour fundraising event and provided invaluable technology support, prize money and media activation. That first year we hoped to break one million and were thrilled when Coloradoans donated $8 million to support nonprofits ion the site. Today it is one of the biggest days in the nation and we continue to provide best-in-class security measures on par with our most trusted institutions, thanks to FirstBank’s continued partnership.

Community First Foundation runs ColoradoGives.org.  True

This is true. Community First Foundation created and runs ColoradoGives.org and Colorado Gives Day. What’s in it for us? Our mission is to connect donors with nonprofits and last year 757,000 people visited ColoradoGives.org, generating 3.9 million page views. In fact, every year more and more donors connect with the causes they care about by discovering new nonprofits on the site.

ColoradoGives.org is a year-round fundraising tool. True.

Yes, it’s true! While many people think of ColoradoGives.org only on Colorado Gives Day, the site exists as a year-round online fundraising platform supporting 3,151 Colorado nonprofits. In 2021, an additional $24 million was raised throughout the year by more than half a million donors. Since the site’s origin in 2007, $498 million has been raised on the platform.

Community First Foundation makes grants to nonprofits in the seven-county Denver Metro area. False.
Community First Foundation makes grants to nonprofits in Jefferson County only.  True.

Community First Foundation is the community foundation serving Jefferson County. While we inspire giving statewide through ColoradoGives.org and Colorado Gives Day, we reserve our grantmaking for Jeffco and occasionally its neighboring communities.

Our foundation began in Jefferson County way back when Lutheran Hospital was established as a hospital for tuberculosis patients as Colorado was being founded. Jeffco is our home and will always have a special place in our hearts. We are leveraging this history and physical location within Jefferson County to make an impact through trust-base, community-informed grantmaking.

Community First Foundation is the philanthropic arm of FirstBank.  False.

Community First Foundation is not the philanthropic arm of FirstBank. FirstBank provides incredible support to Colorado Gives Day as the corporate partner for the event. In addition to serving as technology and security thought leaders for the event, they seed the incentive fund with $500,000 and provide $100,000 in prize money for participating ColoradoGives nonprofits.

Community First Foundation supports nonprofits with endowments.  True.

Yes! We support the long-term financial security of nonprofits across Colorado by helping them establish and build endowments. We invest and manage for more than 120 nonprofits, and are proud to to report strong market performance and responsible investing practices, including environmental, social and governance criteria. There is a lot of investing power in our combined efforts!

Surprised by anything you learned? If you’d like to learn more about Community First Foundation, ColoradoGives, Colorado Gives Day or the work we do in Jefferson County, let us know.