Colorado Still Believes in Santa

Dear Colorado:

I still believe - do you?

Colorado is a generous community of people, as proven by your incredible donations on Colorado Gives Day, Indygive and Season to Share. Not to mention all of your other donations and volunteerism that is evident on Twitter every day.

I still believe that people are basically good. And if people are not showing that goodness, at minimum they still want to be good - and we can help them get there. I believe that Coloradans care about protecting our beautiful lands. I believe that we can still lift people out of bad circumstances if we work together. I believe Colorado is a rather magical place, filled with so many different kinds of people who know how to "rally."

I believe in you, Santa Colorado. And if we continue to believe together, then 2012 will be a great year.

Wishing you the happiest of holidays filled with prosperity, friends and family.

Renee @ConnectColorado

P.S: Here's the link again for tracking Santa through NORAD

Colorado Gives BIG in 2011!!!

Dear Colorado Followers of @ConnectColorado,
On December 6, 2011, Colorado has an opportunity to GIVE BIG to support local charities through the second annual Colorado Gives Day.

Colorado Gives Day is a project by the Community First Foundation. Last year, Colorado Gives Day raised $8.7 Million for Colorado charities! Let's see if we can beat that this year!

On December 6, Go to the Colorado Gives Day website and search for your favorite charites. You can donate to several charities all at once. Your donations are multiplied by some matching funds from local businesses. This year, they have even added a fantastic incentive called Bonus Bucks. "Bonus Bucks are prizes in the amount of $1,000 each. At least once per hour on Colorado Gives Day a donor will be randomly chosen, and the nonprofit associated with the donation will receive the cash prize!"

Twitter is an extremely valuable vehicle for promoting Colorado Gives Day. And that is where you come in. I know that my followers on @ConnectColorado are very interested in supporting charities. So would you please help me out and watch for my tweets concerning #COGivesDay and be sure to RT them so that we reach thousands of Coloradans?

December 6 on @ConnectColorado will be devoted to #COGivesDay. I hope you will participate in all the excitement and tweet with me. My tweets will be excessive on that day and I hope that you will understand.

No matter what you can afford to give to your favorite charities on Colorado Gives Day, your donation will have a significant impact. Being involved in promoting the event and sharing stories about your own favorite charities that are participating will also be very helpful. Be sure to use the #COGivesDay hashtag!

Thanks everyone!

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

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

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.