The holiday season is the time for giving and sharing, but that doesn’t just mean presenting gifts to loved ones. 

The 15th annual Colorado Gives Day is set for Dec. 10, presenting residents with an opportunity to donate to more than 4,000 local nonprofits, helping support the ongoing efforts to provide better lives throughout the state.

Donors can check out the list of nonprofits and give money at ColoradoGives.org. And donors don’t have to wait until Tuesday.

The organizer, Colorado Gives Foundation, and main sponsor, FirstBank, raised $1.4 million to match, or “boost” donations during the extended Colorado Gives Day between Nov. 1 and Dec. 10. 

The statewide day of giving — now branded nationwide as Giving Tuesday — was started by Colorado Gives Foundation in 2010 after a study pinpointed Colorado as one the least-charitable states in the country.

“FirstBank and Colorado Gives Foundation thought that didn’t seem right,” Kelly Dunkin, president CEO of the foundation told The Denver Gazette. “They decided to create the statewide movement to boost that charitable giving and support nonprofits.”

Over the past 14 years, Coloradans have raised around $469 million in support of their favorite nonprofits. In 2023, donors raised $54.2 million. In 2022, they raised around $53 million.

Since the start of early donations in November, Colorado Gives Day has already raised over $20 million, with four days left to go — on pace to break last year’s record, according to Dunkin.

“Colorado Gives Foundation’s mission is to connect people, ideas and nonprofits to make good happen,” Dunkin said, pointing toward the foundation’s yearly efforts like allowing nonprofits that qualify to use the foundation’s website for free. It also offers donor-advised funds through the foundation and stewards around 140 nonprofit endowments, giving nonprofits a tool to manage their investments.

In Jefferson County, the foundation’s home, it makes around $9 million in grants to nonprofits each year outside of the giving day.

But the efforts by the foundation are nothing without the wonderful nonprofits it supports and advertises, according to Dunkin.

“Why we think the reason Colorado Gives Day is so successful is really the nonprofits,” she said. “We give them the chance to come together. They are really the engine. They are doing a ton to engage with their donors and get them to participate in Colorado Gives Day.”

For example, the Good Life Refuge in Longmont has been participating in the day for three years, ramping up its social media and press release presence during the month.

The rescue gives a lifelong place for abandoned and neglected farm animals to live. 

“From rescuing animals like Dinka, a brave donkey who almost lost his life when his owner was forced to vacate his property, to providing life-saving care for residents like Stormy, the resilient hen who survived a vicious predator attack and sweet Pearl, a goat who lost her home due to her owner’s passing and who is battling cancer,” the nonprofit said of its mission in a press release.

“They deserve to be free from harm and get their needs met,” Nicole Brecht, executive director and founder of Good Life Refuge, told The Denver Gazette about the animals at her refuge, in which she started in 2018 after previously working as just a cat and dog rescue.

“It is huge,” she said of Colorado Gives Day. “This is one of our biggest giving days from what we take in donation-wise,” she said, noting that the nonprofit receives around 30% of its yearly donations in the last weeks of the year.

Last year, Good Life received more than $30,000 during the month.

“We often hear from nonprofits that what surprises them is that they find new donors on Colorado Gives Day. A new donor will find them and give to them and it creates a new relationships that they didn’t have previously,” Dunkin said. “We’re also starting to see that word of mouth is spreading.”

While the Colorado Gives Foundation usually sees around 400 new nonprofits listed on the website around each Colorado Gives Day, it has seen more than 700 this year.

Along with the staggering amount of nonprofits listed on the site, the funds raised each year places Colorado as the second-place “gives day” around the country, according to Dunkin.

There are 100 “gives day” events around the country, with only one in North Texas seeing higher donation amounts, Dunkin said.

But, to be fair, the North Texas one counts both donations given through the organizer’s site and donations given directly to the nonprofits, while Colorado Gives Day just counts the amount given through its site, meaning that Colorado’s may actually be the highest, according to Dunkin.

And, no, counting the donations raised throughout the month is not cheating. All of the other “gives day” events also have early donation periods, with some collecting donations after the actual date.

Colorado’s started as a single day and allowed people to schedule donations ahead of time, but this brought about confusion when funds were withdrawn from bank accounts a month later, so the foundation moved to an entire month. They also started allowing a variety of payment forms, like stocks, qualified charitable distributions and donor-advised funds.

All-in-all, the numbers prove that Colorado is not the least charitable state in the country — not even close.

“If Colorado wasn’t charitable, we wouldn’t exist. So, yes, Colorado is charitable,” Brecht laughed.

“I’m inspired every single year,” Dunkin said. “I’m inspired by the nonprofits, the work they do day-in and day-out to improve our communities. And I am in deep gratitude and admiration of the donors who step up every year to support these nonprofits. It makes me feel like we are really part of a special community in Colorado.”