When Dana Rinderknecht
first pitched the idea for Colorado Gives Day, she told people she thought it could raise $1 million.
One website, one day, thousands of individual donations benefitting hundreds, if not thousands, of local nonprofit organizations — she had seen it work in Minnesota the year before.
“People would go, ‘Yeah, good luck with that,’ ” Rinderknecht said. “I was always sure we could raise $2 million or $3 million.”
Even Rinderknecht, director of online giving at the Arvada-based Community First Foundation, couldn’t predict how successful it would become.
Before the clock struck midnight to launch the first Colorado Gives Day, donations tallying $1 million were already scheduled.
At a foundation board meeting that afternoon, the total was $5 million. By the end of 24 hours, giving reached $8.4 million.
“I say these numbers and it’s like Monopoly money,” she said. “From a day in 2010 when we said we’ll raise $1 million to having raised $83 million, honest to God, it blows me away.”
Colorado Gives Day has grown at lightning speed, from $8.4 million that first year to $26.3 million in 2014. The number of donors has grown to 43,979 from 12,540
.
Over five years, the one-day-only online fundraiser has logged
nearly $83 million in donations for Colorado nonprofits — making it one of the largest local Giving Days in the country. Tuesday is its sixth 24-hour blitz.
“She is the driving force,” Colorado Nonprofit Association membership services director Gerry Rasel said. “Dana would never say that — she would just say she’s one part of it. But I find that difficult to believe. Her passion has driven Colorado Gives Day to be as successful as it has been.”
Rinderknecht’s impact can’t be measured in just dollars and cents, either, said Miriam Peña, director of the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships.
“What’s even more remarkable is the impacts we may never know about — the new collaborations or the programs that were able to raise enough resources to continue operating,” Peña said.
“Dana is a visionary and she really cares about nonprofits and the way they raise money so they can be sustainable,” she said. “They’re huge economic drivers in our city and our state and she’s playing a big role in keeping them strong.”
A Colorado native, Rinderknecht grew up in Arvada and attended Colorado State University, where she studied applied mathematics.
She took her skills to the corporate world first, including a long stint at Coors Brewing. She also holds a master’s degree in business administration from University of Denver.
About 15 years ago, she switched gears, transforming a lifelong passion for volunteer work into a full-time career. Before joining Community First in 2007, Rinderknecht served on the staff of a number of Colorado human services agencies, including Dental Aid and Family Pathways of Colorado.
In 2007, Community First had just launched its online giving portal, then called Giving First. That first year, it tallied about $760,000 in donations — roughly the same amount they now raise online in a month, she said.
“Back then, it was cutting edge,” Rinderknecht said. “People really weren’t making their donations online. Cell phones were around, but smart phones were just coming out.”
The year-round portal, now called ColoradoGives.org, has received $117.2 million in online donations, with the majority coming on Colorado Gives Day.
“It’s really changed the face of the way we do fundraising,” she said.
Colorado Gives Day was a way to get people more excited about giving, she said.
Community First had already seen the idea work in other communities and,on a smaller level, in its own matching-dollar campaigns in the early days of the Giving First website.
That first year, 539 nonprofits participated in Colorado Gives Day. This year there are 1,900. A $1 million incentive fund, provided by FirstBank and Community First, will also be shared proportionally among nonprofits that receive donations on Tuesday.
“Colorado was ripe for this,” Rinderknecht said. “Historically we’re not great givers — very generous people, but there wasn’t really a place for people to give that you knew was safe and secure and you knew you could find good nonprofits.”
Rinderknecht has since helped other communities start their own local giving days, including Austin, Texas, which raised $7.7 million this year on its third Amplify Austin Day.
Now, many Coloradans are planning ahead for Gives Day, Rasel said.
“People are excited to see what number is going to be hit,” she said. “I don’t think people used to be excited about giving money away, let’s be honest, but now it’s like ‘How big is it? How awesome is this?’ “
Lakewood-based FirstBank has been the event’s corporate partner since the first year. Regional president Emily Robinson, who sits on Community First’s board, said Rinderknecht has been instrumental in making the platform even better, including the corporate challenge program and development of a smartphone app
.
“Dana has provided tremendous leadership as the Colorado Gives Day website has grown into the largest giving site in the state and one of the largest in the country,” Robinson said in an e-mail. “She creatively incorporates ideas to keep the site fresh and exciting.”
Jill Hartmann, manager of events and community relations for Jefferson Center for Mental Health, said Rinderknecht’s leadership and collaborative approach have also helped make sure Colorado Gives Day brings nonprofits together in celebration, not competition.
“She holds nonprofits’ opinions in such high regard,” Hartmann said. “It would be so easy for a organization raising as much money as they do to say, ‘We’re the experts, we’re going to do what we want to do,’ but that’s not how it is. Dana has brought a lot of nonprofits to the table.”
For her part, Rinderknecht said all she’s doing is providing nonprofits with a tool to connect with donors — the rest is up to them to “put some skin in the game.”
“My hope is truly that it becomes not so much about giving on Gives Day but giving all year around,” Rinderknecht said. “It’s really about year-round giving.”
Emilie Rusch: 303-954-2457, erusch@denverpost.com or @emilierusch
Colorado gives day
Since 2010, Colorado Gives Day has raised almost $83 million for Colorado nonprofit organizations in just five day-long online campaigns.
2010: $8,419,507
2011: $12,369,340
2012: $15,367,055
2013: $20,525,620
2014: $26,279,451
Source: Community First Foundation
