Why can’t I find GOALS on Colorado Gives Day?

Today is Colorado Gives Day, an annual statewide movement created and implemented by the Community First Foundation that “celebrates and increases philanthropy in Colorado through online giving.” For many of our supporters, it seems hard to believe that GOALS can’t be found in the search box on the CGD website. Please let me help make some sense of this.

There are 3 primary reasons you can’t find GOALS on the Colorado Gives Day website. Listed (and briefly described) in order of importance, they are:

Reason 1. TRANSPARENCY.

In its’ early days 10 years ago, the Community First Foundation (CFF) offered a “1 million dollar matching incentive fund” - and while this fund was never truly a “match” for donors, it did significantly increase the value of each donation. Today, the CFF offers a $1.5 million Incentive Fund. Since total donations state-wide on Colorado Gives Day 2019 are expected to exceed $40 million, when this incentive fund is dispersed proportionately, it will equal approximately 3.75% of the total amount raised. In real terms, this translates to every dollar you donate being increased by less than 4 cents.

The intent here is not to suggest we don’t appreciate the gifts from our supporters being increased - we certainly do. However, we have experienced significant challenges in years past when explaining to surprised and disappointed donors that their $50 gift became $51.88, not the $100 they thought GOALS was receiving under the assumption that their gift was being matched.

Reason 2. MOTIVATION.

We spend so much time in canyons promoting authenticity to kids. We speak of identifying an “inner compass” - and using it to navigate a life that feels passion-driven and forward thinking. Our leaders model this mindset, in and out of the wilderness.

We hope our support community does the same. We hope you’re motivated to give to GOALS - or any other nonprofit who relies on your financial support to accomplish their noble and necessary mission - because you can’t imagine a world in which they don’t exist. We hope you’re as driven to empower our work on any other day of the year as you are on Colorado Gives Day. If this is the case, we ask you to consider making your support sustainable by setting up a safe, recurring monthly contribution - allowing GOALS to count of your long-term support in our strategic planning.

Reason 3. WE’RE SWAMPED.

Not withstanding reason 1 and 2 above, the truth is…we missed a deadline. I missed a deadline.

During our first year in 2010, GOALS provided 180 expedition days for 30 kids. In 2019, we provided 1,372 expedition days for 196 kids. In the process of expanding the breadth of our mission by 500-600%, one thing has remained relatively unchanged - the size of our staff. For GOALS to continue impacting as many kids as possible every year on rivers throughout the world, the time has come to increase our human resources.

I am committed to this initiative - but only after ensuring that we raise the resources needed to support every child who wants to be involved in a GOALS youth river expedition. The nearly $40K allotted for financial assistance in 2019 could have been used instead to hire additional staff - but doing so would prevent the families we supported with need-based financial aid from experiencing the growth that GOALS expeditions provide. That always has - and always will, come first. In order to do both, we’ll need more support than ever from the people who are as passionate as we are about the work we’re doing connecting kids to their peers, the planet, and themselves. People like you.

So -would GOALS have been a participating CGD2019 nonprofit if someone had been in the office this summer paying attention when the imposed deadlines for registration came and went - rather than in the wilderness delivering our mission to kids? Based on reason #1 and #2 above, perhaps we wouldn’t - but it would be nice to have the choice.

IN SUMMARY…

If you’ve landed here, you were looking to support GOALS on Colorado Gives Day.

You’re making our mission possible, and we appreciate you. Therefore, if you:
- aren’t disappointed to miss out on the 3-4% incentive fund through Colorado Gives Day.
- feel your inner compass pointing toward a desire to support GOALS every day, not just on Tuesday, December 10

then we hope you’ll feel great about giving what you can using the button below.

Thanks so much in advance. Simply put, we couldn’t do what we do without you.

Sincerely,