This is the time of year when your in-boxes are being inundated with requests from worthy organizations to support their cause, but we wanted to take a moment to share a few reasons to support the Cottonwood Institute for Colorado Gives Day on December 10th, 2013:

We Connect Students To The Outdoors. This year we have connected over 545 underserved students to the outdoors. Many of the students we work with see the mountains everyday, but have never been because they don’t have the gear, don’t have transportation, or don’t have family members or friends who go up to the mountains. Some students went on their first camping trip with the Cottonwood Institute, went on their first night hike, or saw their first deer in the wild.

We Empower Students To “Change Their World.” The change theory that Cottonwood Institute has adopted is Gift + Issue = Change. We believe that every student has a gift and when they apply that to an issue that they are passionate about they will change themselves, which will ripple out to their friends and family, their schools, their communities, the environment, and the world! This year, students logged almost 8,000 service hours tackling local issues from water pollution to organic gardening to waste in their communities.

Your Gift Will Go Further. 100% of your donation to the Cottonwood Institute on Colorado Gives Day will support our organization because Community First Foundation and FirstBank have absorbed the credit card fees. As an added bonus, the FirstBank Incentive Fund was established to help increase the value of every dollar donated on Colorado Gives Day! It feels good to donate to organizations that are doing good work in the community, so donate today!

Donate Today! It only takes a few minutes to make a tremendous difference in the lives of our students. To make a secure tax-deductible donation to the Cottonwood Institute, Click Here.

Be the hero. Do it for the kids. Make a difference. Change your world!

#ExploreOutdoors #ChangeYourWorld #COGivesDay