Colorado Gives Day brought in “record-breaking” donations for Southwest Colorado nonprofits this year, according to the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado.

Colorado Gives Day is a 24-hour, statewide event meant to raise money for nonprofits. This year’s donations totaled about $50 million statewide and about $485,000 for the five-county region. That’s a $200,000, or 70%, increase for the region compared with 2019, the Community Foundation said.

“Each of the last four years that the Community Foundation has led this effort we have seen giving increase substantially,” said Briggen Wrinkle, the foundation’s executive director, in a news release. “Our community clearly understands how hard 2020 has been for so many people, and local donors really stepped up to support nonprofits.”

Southwest Colorado Gives Day allows local donors to make online donations year-round to more than 80 organizations in Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma and San Juan counties.

About 2,500 donations came in during the regional giving day Dec. 8, a 60% increase compared with 2019, the news release said.

In a June survey, conducted in part by the Community Foundation, Southwest Colorado nonprofits expected to lose more than $8 million in revenue during the pandemic.

“It will be interesting, as we dig into these numbers, to determine how many individual donors we had this year,” said Tracy Pope, the foundation’s director of marketing and grants. “I think we will find out that we had both new donors and repeat donors who gave more this year.”

Giving also increased statewide from about $39.6 million in 2019 to $50 million in 2020, according to Colorado Gives Day.

“The overall generosity has been incredibly inspiring,” Pope said.

smullane@durangoherald.com