Thursday, December 16, 2010

Give Twice for Christmas Colorado!

You can give twice this Christmas! The following is a list of ways to give back this Christmas in Colorado.

If you have something to add to this blog, DM me @ConnectColorado (you must be following me to DM me!) I will be updating as time goes on and tweeting it, too!

Photo by: John Lovekin @SanJuanJon





Volunteer and Donation Opportunities for Christmas:

COLORADO SPRINGS

Christmas for needy children: The Bob Telmosse Christmas Giveaway, 7 a.m.- 2 p.m. Mon. Dec. 20. Set up is this weekend at 117 W. Vermijo.
You can volunteer or donate toys and food.
http://santa-bob.org/
Twitter: @toysandturkeys

Colorado Springs Indy Give – Donations, Volunteers, Giving Stuff!
Give! is the Colorado Springs Independent's year-end multimedia and guerilla marketing campaign designed to generate funds, volunteers and applause for the important work local nonprofits perform.
http://www.indygive.com/
Twitter @indygive


DENVER METRO AREA

Care 4 Colorado Toy Drive for the Boys & Girls Clubs!
CBS4 in Denver is collecting toys at area King Soopers to benefit children at Boys & Girls Clubs in metro Denver.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2010/12/05/care-4-colorado-toy-drive/
Twitter: @cbs4denver and @BGCMetroDenver
Bonfils Blood Center Gift wrapping fundraiser: 12/18 and 19. http://ht.ly/3pSp8
On Twitter: @bonfilsdotorg

Denver Urban Gardens – Adorable notecards as gifts (order online)
Denver Urban Gardens has garden-themed notecards designed by student community gardeners at Fairview Elementary. All proceeds go to Denver Urban Gardens Programs: http://dug.org/garden-note-cards
Twitter: @DUGtweet

Metro Volunteers – Holiday Volunteer Guide
Metro Volunteers produces a Holiday Volunteer Guide which is available on their website at http://www.metrovolunteers.org/. They tell me that many of these volunteer opportunities around the holidays do fill up quickly but they wanted me to convey to you that they don’t want you to get discouraged. There are many ways to volunteer during the holidays such as finding something in you neighborhood to do. Park clean-up, snow shoveling for a neighbor, bringing a plate of cookies to someone homebound are all great ideas. Watch their website for year round opportunities.
Twitter: @MetroVolunteers

FORT COLLINS

Christmas for @Turning_Point kids
Holiday parties for children served by Turning Point, a residential treatment center for kids 11 – 17 years old. Parties to be held Saturday, Dec. 18. The first is at the boys house from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., located at 801 South Shields (across from Moby Gym), Ft. Collins. There are usually 25-30 boys. The second party the same day is at the Girl’s House from 1:00p.m. to 3:00p.m., located at 614 South Matthews St., Ft. Collins, CO. There are usually 16-20 girls. They also need help earlier that morning and/or the night before loading cars to help bring everything to the parties in Ft. Collins from a farm. Contact: Lisa Hatcher
(970) 686-7577.

STATEWIDE

Calendar Fundraiser: XXYY Project
Buy a 2011 calendar celebrating the lives of boys and men with XXYY Syndrome!
http://xxyysyndrome.org/shopforxxyy.html
Twitter: @XXYYProject

Buy gifts, give back to charity

The following companies give a portion of their sales back to charity. Buy your gifts at their stores and give twice!

Monkey Hugz – Golden, CO
Their baby registry allows you to donate 5% of the sales it generated to the non-profit of your choice. They also have a new promotion which will give 5% to a charity: http://fb.me/O9XILgJo
and http://www.monkeyhugz.com/
Twitter: @MonkeyHugz



Project Sunshine (buy online)
Is donating Lia Sophia sales and Jewelry to the Rape Assistance and Awareness Program (RAAP) @
RAAPDenver through January 31, 2011
http://projectshinecolorado.wordpress.com/highlighted-items-2/
Twitter: @ProjectSunshine303

Idea from ConnectColorado: If you have Kohl's cash sitting around, use it to buy some toys for children in need.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Wanted: One (or two?) Epic, Caring Colorado Companies...

Wanted: A company or two who would like to perform a random act of kindness for an incredible organization.

Yesterday was Colorado Gives Day, as many of you know. @ConnectColorado was helping to promote the event, and we were watching Colorado charities closely. One that stood out yesterday was the Boulder County AIDS Project @BoulderAIDS. They organized events, promoting themselves in every way imaginable. They were up until midnight tweeting at their final event of the evening. As a whole, this organization did such an amazing job. Even when it is not Colorado Gives Day, this organization goes out of their way to promote those who support them. They are very active on Twitter and they thank every company publicly.

Boulder County AIDS Project had a goal of raising $30,000 yesterday. They didn't reach their goal. Although their official tally isn't in yet, it appears they were short about $10,000 or so.

That's where you come in.

Would your company be willing to perform a random act of kindness by making up the difference for Boulder County AIDS Project? Not only will they thank you publicly on Twitter, but @ConnectColorado will as well - several times. @ConnectColorado has nearly 5,900 Colorado followers on Twitter. Your act of kindness will definitely be noticed.

While your donation won't be matched for Colorado Gives Day, it will top off a deserving organization that worked so hard to make the day a huge success.

If you can make up the difference, or part of it, tweet @BoulderAIDS and also @ConnectColorado. I know that Dan @BoulderAIDS is taking a little time off right now after working so hard these last few days but he will see your tweet. Once they receive your donation, we will tweet you up!

Thanks in advance, whoever you are. I truly hope someone comes through for them.

Renee

PS: I don't work for Boulder County AIDS Project. I just wanted to see them rewarded for the enormous effort.

Thoughts on Colorado Gives Day

Colorado Gives Day was nothing short of epic. While we are waiting for the final tally, at last count it raised $8 Million for Colorado charities by 8:00. The goal was $1 Million! Donations aren't the only benefit either. The massive amount of retweets and testimonials about the charities involved and the event itself raised awareness about all of the fantastic Colorado nonprofits that are making our lives better.

On behalf of @ConnectColorado and my company, CommUlinks of Colorado @CommUlinks, we want to thank all of our followers for getting involved. You put up with us flooding your timeline yesterday and helped make Colorado a better place.

@ConnectColorado will now move on to our usual business of tweeting about things that improve your lives and make Colorado such a great place to live. We may have one more thing to do related to Colorado Gives Day, but we will tell you about that later.

Thank you!
Renee & Jim

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Colorado is Pulling it Out of Our...


Wallets!

Colorado has something to prove tomorrow on Colorado Gives Day. Our fantastic state ranks 38th in charitable giving among states.

Can we let that stand? No we cannot!

We have an opportunity tomorrow on Colorado Gives Day to bring our ranking way up. The goal of Colorado Gives Day is to raise $1 Million for charity. The Community First Foundation @GivingFirst has made it so simple for us, too. You can go to their site and schedule your donations to several charities if you want. You can search by city and give where you live. It is extremely simple.

On December 8, we also need massive tweets that include the hashtag #COGivesDay. Please tweet about your favorite charity involved with this special day and retweet anything you see that has that hashtag in it. If you see Colorado Gives Day spelled out, you can help by retweeting and adding the #COGivesDay hashtag.

How much do you think Colorado can raise?

Monday, December 6, 2010

Support Concert4Autism on Colorado Gives Day

Dear Followers:
Our friends over at Concert4Autism ran into a really big snag in applying to become part of Colorado Gives Day. They were not able to meet the deadline to be listed because their director had a heart attack. Now if that isn't a good reason, I don't know what is!

But they should still be included on this big day of raising $1 Million for Colorado-based charities.

Would you please consider going to their donation page and supporting them directly? People with Autism deserve your support. And Concert4Autism is doing something so great, that they need some attention, too.

Thanks so much!
Renee @ConnectColorado

Friday, December 3, 2010

Colorado Gives Day @ConnectColorado

Dear Followers:

We are so grateful for the tremendous support you have shown to Colorado nonprofits in your tweets and retweets. Today, we are writing this extended message to ask you for your help.


Wednesday, December 8 is Colorado Gives Day - a day when Colorado nonprofits are hoping to raise $1 Million. As you may know, Colorado ranks extremely low in charitable giving compared to other states and now more than ever, our communities need nonprofits to do all of the tremendous missions they accomplish for our benefit.


So here is the part when we ask for your help! In order for #COGivesDay to become a national, trending topic on Twitter, which will gain attention for Colorado Gives Day, we need a lot of tweets with that hashtag. Trending topics happen as a result of some kind of formula at a moment in time. It is based on the number of users at the time and the number of times a hashtag appears. It is Twitter magic, basically! However, during the #BoulderFire, that hashtag did indeed trend for some time so we know it can be done.


We are asking you to help us on December 8 by retweeting Colorado Gives Day tweets heavily and of course donating to nonprofits that you care about who are involved with Colorado Gives Day.


Together, we will show the country that Colorado DOES indeed GIVE in money and energy to improve our communities.


Thanks so much for your help! Keep tweeting on!


PS: We are going to use this blog for other things as well. So if you want your blog listed, be sure to tell us. As with @ConnectColorado, we don't really know where this blog will lead but it will be all about you and your community, that is for sure.

PSS: Just in case you wondered, we aren't getting paid to do this Colorado Gives Day effort. We care - and that is why we are doing it.