- 16 December 2025
-
Colorado Gives Day: A Mathematical Puzzle
I have to admit to being a little skeptical of Colorado Gives Day. I was worried that the focus on one day might diminish overall giving in November and December. I worried about a lower overall average gift. I thought it might turn donors off to get multiple appeals from several organizations to give on December 8th.
But, as far as the measure of giving is concerned, Colorado Gives Day broke the bank. Over 18,000 donations totaling $8 million was given through GivingFirst on that day. From several of the accounts I heard, people got excited. Board members, volunteer, and staff were galvanized around the big goal of raising as much money as possible.
Despite this, and at the risk of sounding a bit ungrateful, there is something that doesn’t quite make sense to me.
One of the draws of Colorado Gives Day is that each organization that participates will get a share of the incentive fund that was established by First Bank of Colorado and a few other donors. Last I heard the incentive fund was $320,000. The absolutely wackiest thing is that the more that was raised on Colorado Gives Day, the less of the incentive fund each non-profit receives.
Huh?
Here’s the formula on the GivingFirst website that it says will be used for distribution:
Individual Charity’s Amount Raised ÷ the Total Amount Raised on CO Gives Day x Total Amount in Incentive Fund = Individual Charity’s Share of Incentive Fund
So, if an organization raised $10,000 on that day, and if $1 million were raised (the original goal) the organization would have received $3,200, according to this formula. However, since $8 million was raised, the organization will get $400.
For larger organizations, the effect is even more drastic. If an organization raised $150,000, it was slated to get $48,000 if the $1 million goal was reached. However, since $8 million was raised, the organization will get $6,000. That’s a big difference. What if you had calculated your expenses in anticipation of a $48,000 return, but you only got $6,000?
And doesn’t it seem bizarre that the more was raised, the less your share of the incentive fund? Wasn’t the promise of the incentive one of the reasons so many of us non-profits and donors participated?
Am I right about this? I’d love to hear back from anyone that has a different understanding or point of view. From my perspective, while this big goal was wonderful and it’s very exciting that we all worked together with our supporters to meet it, the jury may still be out on the true return on investment for non-profits.
We need to analyze how many of these donors are new or reactivated and how many we would have gotten gifts from anyway this season. We need to know the number of upgraded and downgraded gifts. And we need to know if the expenses – both time and direct expenses – returned revenue that was worth the cost, whether $1 million or $8 million was given in total.
It’s truly a mind warp for fundraisers to get LESS when they raise MORE.
Don’t you think?
A. Winther, December 16th, 2010 on 3:51 pm
Yes, your analysis is right on. Plus, there was a cost to the brand value of nonprofits driving their donors to the Community First page, rather than their own. And a cost to those nonprofits who spent money promoting Colorado Giving to the extent donors then spread their donations across other organizations. A great commotion, 1stBank got a lot of great press, but did the Colorado nonprofit sector benefit? Not sure.