Denver Foundation
Contact information:
55 Madison Street, 8th Floor
Denver, CO 80206
Phone: 303-300-1790
Fax: 303-300-6547
Website: http://www.denverfoundation.org
Type of foundation: Community
Types of grants: General support, project, technical assistance, scholarships
Description: The Denver Foundation manages more than 900 charitable funds. It makes most of its competitive grants through the Community Grants Program. The Foundation has a particular focus on serving low-income and underrepresented populations through its Community Grants.
In 2011-12, the Foundation has been revising its grantmaking strategy. Due to this, it is not encouraging new applicants for Community Grants in 2012. In 2013, the Foundation will apparently focus on grantmaking that helps to advance the following goals: making sure that residents in Metro Denver have good jobs, access to help for meeting their basic needs, and a high quality education for their children. The Foundation will continue to fund the arts through its education and economic development work, and will continue to do some health funding through its basic needs area.
The Foundation also makes grants for community development through its Strengthening Neighborhoods program. It also operates the Colorado Nonprofit Loan Fund, which provides loans from $1,000 – $50,000 to nonprofit organizations to help bridge cash flow timing problems. It provides Technical Assistance Grants of up to $3,000 to help organizations increase their capacity to achieve their missions.
Sample grants: (All made through the Community Grants program)
- $27,000 to University of Denver Bridge Project (dropout prevention) for general support (2011).
- $25,000 to Denver Public Schools Foundation for the English Language Acquisition Academy (2010).
- $18,000 to Colorado MESA (STEM-learning organization) for general support (2011).
- $18,000 to Reach Out and Read (literacy) for general support (2011).
- $15,000 to Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation (dropout prevention) for general support (2011).
- $15,000 to Denver Kids (dropout prevention) for general support (2010).
- $14,000 to KUVO/Denver Educational Broadcasting for general support (2011).
- $12,500 to Open Media Foundation (community television and media access) for general support (2010).
- $10,000 to Colorado Public Television for local public affairs programming (2010).
- $5,000 to Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network for general support (2011).
- $5,000 to College Summit (dropout prevention/college access) for general support (2011).
Fit for public broadcasting: This Foundation is a fit for public media that directly serves the seven-country metropolitan Denver area. As it continues to revise its grantmaking strategy for 2013 and beyond, the Foundation plans to “[reach] out to the community for help and advice in numerous ways.” This may be a good time for public media outlets to focus on relationship-building and on positioning themselves to participate actively in the Foundation’s key strategic areas going forward. The Foundation has made several recent grants in the area of dropout prevention – and has indicated that education will continue to be an ongoing priority. This may provide opportunities for public media outlets that are involved in education, whether via early childhood education, literacy work or dropout prevention.
Eligibility: Nonprofit organizations in the seven-county metropolitan Denver area -- Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties -- are eligible. Nonprofit organizations must have 501(c)(3) status.
The Foundation will not make grants to:
- Organizations that have received Denver Foundation funding for three previous consecutive years.
- Organizations that have fund balance deficits in the previous fiscal year.
- Debt retirement.
- Capital campaigns or endowments.
- Membership campaigns, travel, conferences, special events.
- Requests from individual departments of universities that have not coordinated with the university’s fundraising arm.
Deadline: Deadlines for Community Grants applications are the first business day of February, June and October. Decision-making takes four to five months.
How to apply: The Foundation offers pre-application workshops for prospective applicants. The Foundation issued new Grant Guidelines in 2012, which can be downloaded from this page. All applications must use the revised Colorado Common Grant Application.
Giving range: Grants range from $3,000 – $30,000, with the average grants ranging from $13,000 – $16,000.
Assets: $573 million (2010).
Total giving: In 2011, the Foundation awarded over $4 million to hundreds of nonprofit organizations.
View 2008 Annual Report here.
