It’s the season of giving, but for many Denver nonprofits, there’s a tinge of worry.

Some local non-profits are seeing a shift in donations as income inequality grows and costs rise with inflation. Both nonprofit organizations and the people they serve are feeling the squeeze.

“We’re doing everything we can to serve just as many people, if not more,” said Erin Pulling, CEO of Food Bank of The Rockies.

The food bank serves people directly as well as hundreds of partner organizations that distribute food, but Pulling said the need keeps growing.

“At our biggest Thanksgiving distribution (ever) we had a thousand households in line to pick up a couple boxes of food,” she said.

Those in line told food bank volunteers how their struggles have affected them.

“Just story after story of hard-working people making really tough choices,” said Pulling.

Florence Crittenton Services, or FloCrit, is one of the oldest charities in Denver, dating back to the 1890s. Its mission is to educate, prepare, and empower teen mothers and their children. FloCrit Director of Development Theresa Garcia said nonprofits like theirs are in a period of change.

“I think that there is just kind of a shift in the way that people are engaging with non-profits and are engaging with kind of the work in their community,” said Garcia.     

FloCrit received donations from many of its large donors on Colorado Gives Day this year, but there were fewer small and entry-level donors.

“Fewer donors are being asked to fill greater needs,” said Garcia.

She said the costs for young mothers are often out of reach. Housing costs have remained high and the price of necessities has continued to grow.

 “We buy lots of diapers, lots of wipes, lots of formula. All of the things that we know that everybody struggles with,” said Garcia.

Garcia said the needs of the teenage mothers they serve have also continued to grow, including more mental health care, baby items, supplies, educational needs, and employment help. Many don’t have enough to cover these things.

“There’s a lot of things that our families are dealing with that just make it harder to climb out,” Garcia added.

Organizational costs are a major hurdle. Although 70% of the food at the food bank is donated, Pulling said they purchase about 30% themselves.

Each year the food bank ships out about 17 truckloads of cabbage. Now the pricetag has them searching for ways to keep supporting the community as more people struggle financially.

“For that cabbage, we now spending $31,000 more for the cabbage than we were a year ago,” Pulling said. “Like how do we meet this high need? Higher need than we’ve ever seen before with fewer resources.”

SAN JOSE — Alexandar Georgiev was traded on a Monday and he was in net for his new team barely more than 72 hours later.

It’s just a blur of logistics and text messages for anyone who gets traded in the middle of an NHL season. So much to figure out in such a short period of time.

Georgiev spent two-plus seasons as the starting goaltender for the Colorado Avalanche. Then, in an instant, he wasn’t. During all of the welcomes, goodbyes and “OK, what do I need to focus on next?” conversations, Georgiev did have some time to reflect on what just happened.

“I thought about it the evening after I got traded,” Georgiev told The Denver Post on Wednesday, a day before his new team, the San Jose Sharks, will face his former club. “The number that stood out for me was probably 95 wins in two years and two months. That’s a lot of good hockey.”

The Avalanche acquired Georgiev shortly after winning the Stanley Cup in 2022. Colorado has an established pattern of not expending a lot of salary cap space on its goaltenders, so after Darcy Kuemper helped the club to a championship and earned a big contract, it was with someone else.

The Avs signed Georgiev to a three-year contract. For the first two seasons, he provided a strong return on investment. Great first season, up-and-down second year, but a strong finish during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Then, in his contract year, things went off the rails. Georgiev started poorly, improved his play and then had more stumbles. His last two starts for the Avs were a snapshot of this season — pulled in the first period in Buffalo, then lights-out great in Detroit.

Colorado overhauled the positions in 10 days, first trading backup Justus Annunen for Scott Wedgewood, then flipping Georgiev, Nikolai Kovalenko and a second-round pick to San Jose for Mackenzie Blackwood and Givani Smith.

“Yeah, honestly not too much emotions, I would say,” Georgiev said. “It just happened. Management just made decisions. You do your job. They do theirs. You have to accept it.

“Obviously I was planning to keep going, to help get us in a playoff spot and fight for the (Stanley) Cup. But this is how it developed and I’m excited for a new chapter here.”

When the Avs made the second trade, Georgiev was ranked 79th out of 80 goaltenders in goals saved above expected, according to Money Puck. He has shown the ability to snap back from a deep funk before — just refer to the end of last season and Game 1 of the playoffs in Winnipeg, followed by his work the rest of that postseason. But Colorado’s decision-makers decided it was time to move on.

Georgiev has made two starts for the Sharks — a win in St. Louis three days after the trade, and a last-minute loss Tuesday night to Winnipeg.

“(Georgiev) has been good,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “He competes in there. He’s quick. I think he made some big saves when we needed them (Tuesday night). They had some really good chances before the tying goal and they could have easily gone up earlier than that. I thought he gave us a chance to win.”

This will be a new challenge for Georgiev. The Sharks have rebounded from a horrible start and appear to have a young, fun team on the rise. But that rise isn’t really expected to kick into high gear for another year or two. There are probably going to be some long nights and a lot of shots to face.

They also have a clear-cut goalie of the future. Yaroslav Askarov, just up from the AHL, was sitting about 15 feet to Georgiev’s left in the Sharks’ locker room after practice. Also in the room was Evgeni Nabokov, one of the greatest Russian goalies ever and part of San Jose’s front office.

Just like Blackwood, the future is very uncertain for Georgiev. Both goalies can be unrestricted free agents after this season. Georgiev should have a chance to rebuild his value with the Sharks, and getting to work with both Nabokov and Askarov could help determine if his future can be in San Jose.

The future is what’s most important now. There will be more time to reflect on the past once the future is settled.

“A lot of positivity,” Georgiev said of how he’d sum up his time in Denver. “It was a great group of guys. That was so awesome. The expectations were so high. That’s what I loved about it. It felt like we were fighting for something special. It’s all about the final goal, the Cup there. That was a lot of fun. I learned a ton.

“Winning is so much fun. Being in a position with a really, really good team and having that opportunity every night is just incredible. I’m happy I got to experience that, and I will experience that on another team again.”

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The Denver Broncos are one win away from earning a playoff berth. The Broncos (9-5) can clinch their first playoff berth since the 2015 season with a win Thursday against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Peyton Manning was the quarterback the last time the Broncos reached the playoffs.

Denver quarterback Bo Nix knows what’s a stake in the game against the Chargers (8-6), but he doesn’t want his teammates to view the game as a one-and-done in terms of earning a playoff berth. The rookie is thinking big.

“We’ve got three games to win three and go into the playoffs and win a Super Bowl,” Nix told reporters on Tuesday.

The Broncos have won four consecutive games, their longest winning streak since the 2023 season, when they won five consecutive games. Nix wants the Broncos to win their final three games of the regular season and enter the playoffs riding a seven-game winning streak.

However, if the Broncos want to extend their current streak and earn a playoff berth, they must defeat the Chargers.

“We’ve talked about it all year, ‘The next game is the most important game. Right now, this is what’s important to us. It’s the most important,” Nix told reporters on Tuesday. I think this next one would put us on track for where we want to go. So, we have a lot of work to do. The job’s not finished, so that’s what we’re going to do.”