Rising Stars: Meet Gerry Culver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gerry Culver.

Hi Gerry, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Originally I started out in politics. When I was a junior in college, through a connection from my dad, I interned on a gubernatorial campaign in North Dakota. What started out as a summer internship quickly transformed into me taking a leave of absence from college and finishing out the year on the campaign. After college, I ended up working on another political campaign in Virginia. I learned so much on both of those campaigns and things I still carry with me to this day. Like I’m not a Republican like my parents and I didn’t want to work on Republican campaigns anymore!

After politics, I took a random turn toward nonprofits. I thought I wanted to get into data so I took a job at a nonprofit called Share Our Strength and moved to DC like all NoVA children eventually do. There I met my very best friend who eventually dragged me (along with an ex) to Denver. When I moved to Denver, I decided to take another job at a museum to be in-person and no longer remote. I worked there through the pandemic and eventually made the leap to Community First Foundation.

Here at Community First Foundation, I transitioned from data work to what I’ve always been passionate about going back to politics – relationship building, account management, and community engagement.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Oh god no. I would like to meet the person who didn’t have a bumpy road! Through trials and tribulations, too many moves to keep track of, bad breakups equivalent to Taylor Swift’s RED (I’m well known to love all things Taylor related), my first cat passing suddenly, and the constant change of “what I like to do” with my career, my life has been more equivalent to some Denver pothole littered streets.

Through it all, I’ve done my best to carry on and preserve while trying to do what is right.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I work at Community First Foundation. Our purpose is to connect individuals, nonprofits, and ideas to make good happen. One way we do this is through the online giving platform that we use to connect donors and nonprofits on Colorado Gives Day. My title is Development & Community Engagement Manager – a mouthful but it encapsulates everything I am passionate about. I’m able to work with businesses of all sizes to help them meet their philanthropic needs along with aiding individuals that want to give back to the community.

During Colorado Gives Day in 2022, we launched the inaugural Corporate Giving Challenge. It was our first year, and we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to recruit many companies to participate. Through my hard work, relationship building, and gumption we ended up with over 80 companies that participated in raising over $380k+ alone. I want to say what sets me apart is my humor and wit, but I guess those are all subjective.

What do you think about happiness?
I wanted to be a typical millennial and say “my anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds”, but my best friend, Windy, suggested something else!

I’d say the very typical things make me happy: my partner David, our dog (Peggy) and cat (Penny), my best friend and our friends, spending time with my family when we get to the East Coast, cooking/baking especially for others, and of course traveling.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gerry.otter
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrypculver/

Image Credits
Windy Dunbar and Jaime Aguilar