Food Bank for Larimer County

For more than three decades, Food Bank for Larimer County’s mission has been to provide food to all in need through community partnerships and hunger-relief programs. As the community has grown, so has the Food Bank’s need to be able to effectively and efficiently obtain, store, and distribute larger and healthier amounts of food to those most in need. This growing need required them to expand their warehouse space twice in Fort Collins and also to purchase and remodel an additional site in Loveland.

Art Bavoso provided fundraising counsel to the Food Bank for the two capital campaigns they undertook to meet that challenge. For the first campaign in 2001, services provided by Third Sector included fundraising training for board members, developing a campaign plan to expand their donor database, working closely with staff in overseeing the plan’s implementation, and suggesting additional strategies to ensure the campaign met with success. After successfully raising $857,000, the Food Bank’s expanded office and remodeled warehouse opened to the public in 2002, enabling the organization to provide an additional half a million pounds of food to people in need the first year.

During the second campaign in 2010, the Food Bank’s board of directors was already well aware of their fundraising responsibilities, they had an expanded donor database in place, and the existing staff had built relationships with foundations. For this second campaign, Third Sector conducted a donor qualification survey, wrote a plan for how to best approach individual donors, and coached the staff along the way as the campaign team carried out the plan. In 2011, the Food Bank opened its new facility in Loveland, and the organization now serves 36,000 people each year.

“As a well-known and respected community leader, Art Bavoso was a tremendous resource during two Food Bank for Larimer County capital campaigns. He helped us forge connections to new individual donors and foundations, as well as providing guidance and motivation to our Board and leadership team. Always professional and easy to work with, Art kept the tone of our campaigns upbeat, relaxed and fun. He set the pace and kept us on track to meet our goals. The Larimer Shares campaign was tremendously successful, raising $2.4 million for our Loveland Food Share facility in about 18 months. Art is a valued friend of Food Bank for Larimer County.”

—Amy Pezzani, Chief Executive Officer