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| The Community Foundation
Serving Boulder County Nominated for IQ Award |
6/28/01
The Community Foundation of Boulder County has been
nominated for an IQ Award in the category of non-profit
products and services for innovation by spearheading the
Culture of Giving initiative. "It started with the
Millennium Trust (fund)," said Community Foundation
President and former Boulder County Commissioner Josie
Heath of the Culture of Giving initiative. "It was
for everyone to become a philanthropist."
The Millennium Trust for Boulder County, a fund supporting
non-profit organizations in Boulder County, was a partnership
between The Community Foundation and the Daily Camera.
The goal of the trust was to invite Boulder County residents
and businesses to become investors in the trust fund by
donating their last hour of income from the last millennium.
"Over three months we raised $1.8 million dollars,"
Heath said. Although the amount raised for the local charity
seems significant, Heath says Boulder is still behind
some its neighboring cities in terms of raising charity
funds. "Unfortunately, we rank low based on our education
background and resources," she said. "We find
that (Boulder) does not even compare to Denver."
Today, the Culture of Giving initiative is actually a
collaborative effort involving The Community Foundation,
Social Venture Partners, Tesser, and the Boulder Community
Network. The Culture of Giving mission is to create a
stronger, more connected community, by providing the resources,
information and tools to build upon Boulder County's growing
philanthropic culture.
One of the thrusts of the initiative is to facilitate
on-line research and giving for donors who are part of
Boulder County’s wired community through a website.
The website at www.CultureofGiving.org, allows over 1,100
nonprofits in Boulder County to present information about
their agency to the community. Tesser Inc., a website
firm based in Boulder, designed Culture of Giving’s
website pro bono. Those who log onto the site may search
by interest area, such as environment or homelessness,
and find pages with comparable information about groups
working in that area. The website also allows people to
figure out how much to give, based on their income. Another
component of the Culture of Giving initiative is the Business
Partners program, which recognizes businesses that donate
2 percent or more of their pre-tax profits to charitable
organizations in the community. The program recognizes
gifts of cash, in-kind services and goods, and paid time
off to volunteer.
Business Partners receive a decal to put on their retail
business windows and use of the Business Partner logo.
"We found in our surveys that people wanted to know
who gave back to the community, so their shopping habits
might change based on the findings," Heath said.
In an effort to step up the Culture of Giving initiative,
this fall The Community Foundation plans to launch a major
marketing campaign towards individuals. "We’ll
do stories (on the website) about individuals and families
who give and why," Heath said. The Culture of Giving
website will also spotlight some of those non-profits
that receive from those generous people. To market the
campaign effectively, Heath said, The Community Foundation
will attempt to gain exposure through print and radio
advertising. Heath says one of the big plans for the Culture
of Giving website is to create a Charitable Giving Index
that operates similarly to the Dow Jones Index, but it
will begin with the baseline of charitable giving in Boulder
County based on 1998 figures and track the percentage
change from year to year.
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