More than 350 community members gathered Thursday evening to honor the work of philanthropy in the Estes Valley and celebrate the award nominees and winners at the 16th Estes Nonprofit Network’s
Billed as “Estes Park’s warm fuzzy event of the year” the gathering in Assembly Hall at the YMCA of the Rockies featured a small plate buffet of shrimp on ice, marinated chicken skewers, Swedish meatballs, an array of cheeses and fruits, insalata Caprese, and cakes.
Cato Kraft, executive director of the Estes Nonprofit Network, framed her remarks to the audience as a “love letter” to the Estes Valley. This was Kraft’s last National Philanthropy Day awards as she and her husband will be moving to the Big Island in Hawaii in 2026.
Kraft talked about the strength of the nonprofit community that steps up to work together to share its resources. At the end of her remarks, the crowd gave Kraft a standing ovation in recognition of her service to the organization and the Estes Valley.
Karen McPherson, the outreach director for the ENN shared a series of pie graphs that showed the impact of the uncertain economic landscape due to significant cuts in government and foundation grants and the financial toll those cuts are taking on many nonprofits, some of which have needed to dip into reserves, if they have any, to make ends meet.
Many nonprofits that provide needed health care and social services operate on annual budgets of less than $200,000 and do not have full-time paid staff, said McPherson.
In June, the ENN conducted a “stress test” to measure how nonprofits were fairing. According to the report, “ “The ‘fat to trim’ is long gone. What’s left is bone. Starved, splintered, and still bearing the weight of this community’s needs.”
McPherson said the ENN reached back out this fall to re-survey area nonprofits and found that for many, the financial picture for their organizations is deeply concerning.
Although funding for many organizations is down – what McPherson referred to as treasure part of philanthropy – the Estes Valley community is generous in volunteering time and talent. To recognize that contribution, members of the audience who have volunteered their time, talent, and treasure were asked to stand and be recognized.
Nominations and awards
This year’s award nominees and winners, in bold, were:
Youth Nominees
- Estes Park High School Key Club
- Estes Park Middle School Environmental Resilience Team
- Mica Bertucci
- Youth In Action
Enduring Service Nominees
- Alice League
- Alissa Anderson
- Belle Morris
- Bob Leavitt
- David Batey
- Dawn James
- Jim Pickering
- Judy Brannon
- Laura Trump
- Tom Washburn
Business Nominees
- Bank of Estes Park
- Estes Park Mountain Shop
- High Plains Excavation & Aggregate
- Kind Coffee
- Mueller Pye & Associates, CPA, LLC
- Sabir Sherestha and Paras Poudyal, Rajiv Poudel, Owners of The Hive, Lonigan’s, Himalyan Curry & Kebob, Flavors of the Rockies, and the Estes Village Store
Katie Speer Philanthropist of the Year Nominees
- Denise Shank (Posthumously)
- Janet Collison
- Ken Arnold
- Niki Gassmann
Shavlik Nonprofit of the Year Nominees
- Bridge of Estes
- Estes Valley Crisis Advocates
- EVICS Family Resource Center
- Estes Valley Sunrise Rotary Club