
Nonprofits cash in as Colorado Gives Day enjoys sucessful 2024
Michelle Stewart of the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council described Tuesday’s Colorado Gives Day as a wonderful day of connection and celebration that was an important time for nonprofits.
“Colorado Gives Day was great,” Stewart said. “It’s just a really important time of connecting with the community, and an opportunity to enable donors to support the nonprofits that really make up the fabric of the Yampa Valley. It’s a time when we get to connect with people who we don’t connect to throughout the year, and it’s a sign that the community supports our work, but also it is such a testament to the way in which our community comes together to support our nonprofits.”
This year Colorado Gives Day raised $1,308,922 for the community’s 100 nonprofits. That’s slightly less than in 2023 — when the day brought in $1,394,971 — but more than 2022 when the event raised $1.2 million.
Holly Wilson, philanthropic services manager for the Yampa Valley Community Foundation, had feared the large fundraising efforts over the summer, including one for Casey’s Pond senior living community, might impact Colorado Gives Day this year. However, she said she was grateful that Yampa Valley residents still showed up to make donations.
“It’s just under last year’s numbers, but I think it’s just incredible that we were able to raise basically the same amount as last year, so we’re pretty excited about that,” Wilson said.
“Yampa Valley Gives is a regional champion,” Wilson said. “We provide marketing support to the nonprofits. For them it’s free to participate, so there are no fees with Colorado Gives or for all the marketing. We raise sponsorship dollars to provide all the marketing for them.”
This year the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council was hoping to raise $110,000 of the $235,000 needed for general operation expenses as part of an effort that began on Nov. 1 and will run through Dec. 31. The organization had raised nearly $60,000 during Colorado Gives Day, and is hoping to gather another $30,000 by the end of the year.
“It’s helping us cover almost 50% of our general operations, so it’s a huge way that we pay for our existence value, essentially,” Stewart said.
The donations will help support general operations at the Sustainability Council, which runs five different programs including energy and transportation, waste and circularity, resilient land and water and community engagement.
Wilson said for many nonprofits, Colorado Gives Day is the biggest fundraising event of the year, and it is an easy way to give donations to nonprofits that provide critical services.
Colleen Miller, executive director at Family Development Center, an umbrella organization that includes Discovery Learning Center, said the $25,000 in donations that came in during Colorado Gives Day, as well as other donations and fundraisers help reduce the cost of daycare for families in Routt County and provide scholarships that make it possible for families to access the services Discovery offers.
“The money that we’re able to raise during Colorado Gives Day and Yampa Valley Gives allows us to continue our mission, because it really hasn’t changed for the last 40 years for us,” Miller said. “We’re still doing the same work, still providing the same quality education and parent home visitation programs — we can’t do that without the support of our community.”
Both Miller and Stewart expressed gratitude to the community that came out to support the nonprofits on Colorado Gives Day.
“It is just an incredible opportunity to unite as a community and support the vital programs and work that make us Routt County,” Miller said. “… I do feel that our community is pretty unique helping support the families that live here and call this their home. We feel privileged to be able to work with the children and families that we work with.”
John F. Russell is the business reporter at the Steamboat Pilot & Today. To reach him, call 970-871-4209, email jrussell@SteamboatPilot.com or follow him on Twitter @Framp1966.