One of Colorado’s largest statewide fundraising efforts is quickly approaching, and Summit County’s nonprofits are campaigning to meet their fundraising goals. 

The 14th annual Colorado Gives Day, started by the Colorado Gives Foundation, whose mission is to connect nonprofits with their surrounding communities, will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 10. Last year, Colorado Gives Day raised over $54 million for thousands of nonprofits throughout the state. 

Leaders from many of Summit nonprofits say they heavily rely on donations to be able to serve the community, especially because acquiring state and federal grant funding has become more difficult.  

“Some of the local state dollars have gone away for treatment access, and so that has made things harder,” Kelly Ender, executive director of mental health nonprofit Building Hope Summit, said. “We also have seen more of our grants become more restrictive on what they will actually cover.”

Building Hope launched in 2016 after a number of suicides in Summit County. Ender said as seeking mental health help becomes less stigmatized, the nonprofit is seeing an uptick in the number of people they serve. She said there has been increased interest in Building Hope’s scholarship program, which provides those who wouldn’t normally be able to afford mental health services the opportunity to.

Ender said winter is a particularly busy time for the nonprofit and they need all the help they can get. 

Executive director of Summit nonprofit Family and Intercultural Resource Center Brianne Snow said funding available for the type of work her nonprofit does, which entails providing numerous forms of aid including food and financial assistance for local families, continues to dwindle. She said each year there is less grant funding as prices for food and other costs of living continue to skyrocket. 

In its 2024 fiscal year, the resource center had over 33,000 visits and gave $5.8 million worth of food to the community. 

Family and Intercultural Resource Center’s Colorado Gives Day fundraising goal is $50,000. As of Sunday, Dec. 8, it has raised around $15,200.

Executive director of immigrant advocacy nonprofit Mountain Dreamers Peter Bakken said the organization is gearing up for what it anticipates will be one of its busiest years yet in 2025. 

He said the organization saw an uptick in those coming to them after President-elect Donald Trump won the Nov. 5 election. He said Trump’s pledge to carry out a mass deportation has spurred a great deal of fear among the local immigrant community, who are looking to Mountain Dreamers for help and resources. 

“The support of Colorado Gives Day is crucial to Mountain Dreamers … especially now,” he said, noting there is some uncertainty about how much funding will continue to be available for immigrant nonprofits. 

Bakken said Mountain Dreamers’ funding works on a year-to-year basis and what they have at the start of the year is what they have to work with, so donations are important.

Mountain Dreamers is aiming to raise $10,000 on Colorado Gives Day and has raised $1,300 as of Sunday, Dec. 8.

The National Repertory Orchestra, a nonprofit with a track record of producing renowned musicians, is an organization particularly in need of Colorado Gives Day donations.

In mid-October, the National Repertory Orchestra was notified it no longer appeared on the Internal Revenue Service’s nonprofit “master file,” which made it ineligible to take part in this year’s Colorado Gives Day campaign. Because of this, it was not able to accept donations through the campaign when it started on Nov. 1, and was only able to begin collecting donations recently. As of Dec. 8, National Repertory Orchestra has collected around $5,400 of the $30,000 it is looking to raise.

Many other nonprofits based in Summit County are looking to fundraise on Tuesday. To find more, visit ColoradoGives.org