Recap and Resources
- Click here to view a photo slideshow of this year's event.
- Click here to view videos shown at this year's event, as well as a 5-minute highlight video of the event.
- Homeless Gear as a simple mission: Collect unwanted outdoor gear (packs, sleeping bags, tents, tarps, etc), outdoor basic clothing (coats, rain gear, boots, etc) and hygiene products, and then redistribute those items to the homeless. The Homeless Gear team makes the days more bearable and the nights survivable for homeless adults, youth, and children.
- NoCo Active 2030 is a group of men, all between the ages of 20 and 39, that put their leadership skills and their commitment to local philanthropy to good use by raising funds for disadvantaged children in Northern Colorado. The groups makes grants to existing 501c3 agencies.
- The Fort Collins Veterans Plaza will be located at Spring Canyon Community Park in Fort Collins on three acres of land close to the main entrance. This visionary plaza will incorporate sandstone paths, native rock, shade trees, and a natural stone stage for celebrating the liberties and freedoms that have been protected by service members.
- The Berthoud Historical Society's McCarty-Fickel Home is the setting of a historic museum that explores the domestic, professional and civic lives of members of the McCarty and Fickel families from the 1890s to present. Dr. R.B. Fickel, who helped found the Berthoud Historical Society in 1977, deeded the home to the organization for use as house museum in July 2008.
- Smiles Without Borders empowers national dentists to provide sustained dental care for children in the primary schools in their countries. The organization assists the communities by providing portable dental equipment and supplies. The organization also has a passion for helping at a local level. To learn more, contact Dr. Dick Schilling.
- Sky Corral Lodge was established when a generous individual purchased land in Bellvue and donated it to a 501c3 entity to allow for the creation of a Christian camp. The camp now features a main lodge and numerous cabins, and the Sky Corral team provides families and groups with a wealth of recreational opportunities including mountain biking, archery, trail riding, fishing, and "theo-caching.
Community Foundation celebrates local, global philanthropy
By Northern Colorado Business Report
5/14/2010
FORT COLLINS - The community foundation model just might save the world, in the opinion of former U.S. Senator Tim Wirth. 
Now the president of the private, nonprofit United Nations Foundation, Wirth told a crowd of nearly 600 supporters at the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado annual Celebration of Philanthropy Thursday evening that his organization aspires to be "the community foundation for the world."
The UN Foundation was created in 1998 by CNN Founder Ted Turner with the goal of supporting United Nations causes with $100 million per year for 10 years. After three years of traditional grant-making, the focus shifted from projects to "problems without borders," Wirth said.
The UN Foundation brings together not only governments, but also UN resources, non-governmental organizations and large private-sector corporations including Nike and Citibank, to work on projects such as the eradication of polio.
"We also have some skin in the game," he said. The foundation's annual budget is now between $150 million and $180 million, with $30 million coming from Turner.
Wirth, who represented the Second Congressional District outside Denver from 1975 to 1987 and was elected to the Senate in 1986, outlined some of the 10 big campaigns the foundation is currently supporting: continuing the work of the Rotarians on polio; supporting the Centers for Disease Control, the Red Cross and Unicef in the eradication of measles; bringing reproductive health information to the 200 million women who have no access to family-planning services; and Nothing But Nets, which combats malaria by distributing mosquito-repellent bed nets to residents of areas plagued by the disease, including refugee camps.
That idea was first proposed by Colorado sportswriter Rick Reilly in a 2006 Sports Illustrated article. Reilly gave Wirth about 48-hours notice before it was published to set up a website to receive $10 donations. Twenty-four hours after it hit print, the foundation had received $1.5 million. Sumitomo Chemical, the Japanese company that developed a human-safe repellent for the nets, has opened a new factory in Tanzania to meet the growing demand, creating 4,000 jobs in the process.
That kind of private support for the public good is the reason for community foundations, Wirth added.
In her presentation on the finances of the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado, chair Wynne Odell reported $6.9 million in gifts were received during 2009, excluding confidential donor-directed gifts, and grant and program distributions of $2 million were made. Total assets as of April 30, 2010, were $44 million - $11 million more than in 2008, and more than double the $20 million on hand in 2004.
The Community Foundation is celebrating its 35th year in 2010, and current collaborative efforts highlighted throughout the evening included FortZED, Homeless Gear, Homeward 2020, Leadership Northern Colorado, Veterans Plaza, The Museum/Discovery Science Center, which is set to break ground this summer, and the Rialto Bridge Project in Loveland, which is expected to bring 80 new jobs to the city's downtown when completed.
Community Foundation looks back, then forward
BY KEVIN DUGGAN • KEVINDUGGAN @COLORADOAN.COM • MAY 14, 2010
Making one big idea work - be it reining in a deadly infectious disease or building a shelter for victims of domestic violence - takes the work of a lot of people.
That was the message delivered Thursday during the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado's annual Celebration of Philanthropy at the Hilton Fort Collins.
Keynote speaker Tim Wirth, a former U.S. senator from Colorado and current president of the United Nations Foundation, said he was impressed by the Community Foundation's work and compared it to what his organization is trying to accomplish.
"We aspire to be the community foundation to the world," he said.
After noting his many connections to Fort Collins and Colorado State University, Wirth said the Community Foundation exemplifies the concept of "thinking globally, acting locally."
The private United Nations Foundation was started in 1998 by billionaire Ted Turner to support "U.N. causes," Wirth said.
It has supported major advances against polio, measles and malaria in developing countries. The foundation is also working to support the emerging clean-energy economy and address the challenges of climate change, he said.
Taking on any major problem requires the cooperation of multiple partners, including corporations and nongovernmental agencies, he said.
The United Nations is coming to understand that "problems without borders" facing the world cannot be handled by governments alone, he said.
"It has to reach out into the community of businesses and the community of nongovernmental organizations to solve these problems," he said. "So that's what you all are doing, and you are doing it so well."
About 530 people attended the sold-out event, which focused on the foundation's recent successes as well as a few major projects the community will be working on in the year to come.
Highlighted projects included the renovation of the Lincoln Center, building a new facility for the Fort Collins Museum and Discovery Science Center and building a state-of-the-art shelter for Crossroads Safehouse, a nonprofit that serves domestic violence victims.