Meet the 2018 Small Nonprofit Organization of the Year Finalists

The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Business Awards celebrate organizations from across the region who are leading in their field and making an impact in the community – writing our next chapter as a great community to live and do business.

Meet the 2018 Small Nonprofit Organization of the Year finalists: Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, Economic Literacy Colorado and Food For Thought. The winner will be announced live on Friday, April 27.

Colorado Business Committee for the Arts Advances Colorado’s Creative Economy

A strong business and arts committee are critical to a strong economy. And, Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA) is working to unite the two.

CBCA was founded in 1985 to forge and inspire those partnerships.

“Our mission is as true today as it was then, which was to advance Colorado’s creative economy by connecting business and the arts,” said Christin Crampton Day, executive director for CBCA.

They do that through their signature programs: Leadership Arts, Colorado Attorneys for the Arts and On My Own Time, all with the goal of strengthening the arts. “We’re really developing our community’s next cultural leaders,” Day said.

CBCA evaluates the success of arts and culture as an industry yearly through their Economic Activity Study of metro Denver culture. CBCA, in partnership with the Chamber, accesses how arts drive our economy: “With Denver and the state’s rapid growth, this study really validates how important the arts are to our growing economy,” Day said.

Last year, the study showed a $1.8 billion economic impact and created almost 11,000 jobs. And, 13.9 million people attended arts and culture events; in fact, Colorado was top in the country for the number of people who identify as artists or participating in the arts.

Metro Denver’s collaboration between arts and culture is unique to our economy, and it’s something that sets us apart, CBCA leaders said.

“I think that the approach that [CBCA] has is to constantly look for new opportunities and ways to invest in the community from the business side to the arts side and vice versa,” Mark Davidson, board chairman for CBCA said.

The arts inspire creativity and innovation in the workplace, and it helps establish metro Denver as a place where employees want to live and work.

“It makes companies want to locate here and employees want to live here,” Day said. “You can’t really have that cultural vitality if you don’t have the support of the business community. It’s really an integral and interconnected reciprocal relationship.”

Economic Literacy Colorado Educates on Everyday Economics

We each make economic decisions every day in our personal, professional and civic lives – we just may not realize it. Economic Literacy Colorado (ELC) is changing that by educating teachers to ensure that students leave school knowing they can make important financial decisions.

“We believe that teachers have a fundamental role in our education system, and if they are more knowledgeable, engaged and empowered with what they know the same is going to happen to their students,” said Debbie Pierce, president and CEO of ELC.

There’s a multiplier effect when you educate a teacher – one teacher can reach over 100 students each year and in their career they will reach over a thousands of students.

To educate teachers, ELC offers one-day programs, classes, workshops and week-long seminars, most of which are accredited through the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.  “Teachers get excited and walkaway with lessons that they can teach in the classroom Monday morning,” Pierce said.

Since they were founded in 1971, ELC has grown exponentially. Today, they offer dozens of classes a year and reach more than a thousand teachers. And, in 2017 ELC reached over 100,000 students in 50 Colorado counties.

By improving the economic understanding and critical thinking of the next generation of Coloradans, ELC is working to enhance the long-term health of our economy.

“I find it ironic that we spend 12 years minimum with [students] to prepare them for a career, to prepare them for life and to earn a living, but we don’t tell them what to do with those earnings,” Pierce said.

Pierce and ELC are working to change that and to be “at the table with all the other players, because we know what an impact education can have on students’ lives.”

No Child Goes Home Hungry with Food For Thought

If you show up to the Colfax viaduct on Friday morning, you’ll see volunteers lined up at tables packing food for children to take home on the weekends.

“If it’s snowing wear your boots, and if it’s hot out wear your shorts,” said Bob Bell, co-founder of Food For Thought Denver.

Food For Thought Denver’s mission is simple: make sure that no child in Denver Public Schools (DPS) goes without food over the weekend.

“This just helps them with some stability not only in their house, but in their pantry,” Bell said.

Food For Thought Denver targets schools where 90 percent or more of the students are eligible for free and reduced lunch programs (income of a family of four is less than $29,000 a year). That’s close to 35,000 DPS children.

How are they reaching kids? A PowerSack. It’s 15 items of nonperishable food – from snacks to items that comprise a meal for the family – to last through the weekend. All the food is donated through a partnership with Food Bank of the Rockies. To date, Food For Thought has delivered nearly 240,000 PowerSacks.

“We put a bag for every kid. So, when we go to a school, it’s not picking and choosing amongst what kids need it and what kids don’t,” Bell said. “What we’re not about is stigmatizing a child.”

Food For Thought Denver leaders pride themselves on being volunteer-run.

“We don’t have a single paid staff,” Bell said.

Since its founding in 2012, Food For Thought Denver has grown from 500 kids to 8,200 kids. Bell’s mantra is if they take on a school, they’re never backing out of it.

“Everyone at food for thought just gives enough of their time – many hands make the load light,” Bell said.  “And this is just the truest example of that.”

Laura James is the marketing and communications coordinator for the Denver Metro Chamber.