Community Foundation Serving Boulder County
Contact information:
1123 Spruce St.
Boulder, CO 80302
Phone: (303) 442-0436
Fax: (303) 442-1221
Type of foundation: Community
Types of grants: General operating, endowment, capital, project, technical assistance
Description: The Community Foundation manages more than 200 charitable funds. It makes most of its competitive grants through its Community Trust. The Foundation established the Community Trust in 2008, allowing it to double its discretionary grantmaking in 2009. The Community Trust makes grants in the areas of arts/culture, youth, basic needs, civic engagement, education, environment and health/human services.
The Foundation has a strong interest in early education. It has launched a campaign to promote school readiness and reduce the achievement gap in Boulder County. The campaign is called ReadySetLearn and is spearheaded by the Community Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Daily Camera (newspaper) is also involved. The campaign is aimed at helping people in the community understand the “direct connection between a community’s investment in early childhood education and the achievement gap that weighs down otherwise high performing school systems. Its goal is to create a groundswell of voices calling for someone to do something to improve access to quality early care and education for Boulder County’s at-risk preschool students.” It is making explicit connections between early learning and dropout prevention, crime prevention, national security and economic security. The campaign is currently raising money ($4 million) from the community, which will funnel into the Community Trust.
The Foundation operates some additional funds that accept proposals, including:
- Millennium Trust: focused on arts, environment, civic involvement, education, and health and human services.
- Open Door Fund: focused on the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community.
- 15 Forever Program: serving the needs of youth.
- Social Venture Partners: capacity-building.
- Knight Foundation Fund: focused on civic engagement.
Sample grants: Community Trust grants include:
- $8,650 to Latino Task Force (2010).
- $7,000 to Parent Engagement Network (2010).
- $4,500 to eTown (radio variety show) (2009).
- $3,000 to I Have a Dream Foundation (dropout prevention) (2010).
- $3,000 to Impact on Education (improving Boulder schools) (2010).
- $2,000 to Colorado Film Society (2010).
Fit for public broadcasting: The Foundation describes itself as “committed to transformational community leadership—the practice of foreseeing emerging community needs and leveraging resources and strategic partnerships to make a real difference.” Its recently launched ReadySetLearn early learning initiative is part of this work. There are opportunities for public media outlets to apply for grants from the Foundation. But beyond that, there should be convergence between the Foundation’s commitment to meeting community needs and public media’s work. This is especially true in the area of early learning, where public media has long been a leader, and continues to be active both in broadcast and in digital media. Further, the ReadySetLearn campaign is clearly interested in informing the public about early learning and public media could certainly play a role in that effort.
Eligibility: Applicants can be any non-profit organization with an IRS 501(c)(3) designation or any governmental or public entity. Groups or organizations that do not have IRS 501(c)(3) designation may only apply in partnership with one of the nonprofit designations listed above. Applicants must serve or benefit Boulder County residents.
Deadline: Deadlines for competitive grants can be found here. The deadline for Community Trust applications is in the Fall.
How to apply: Applicants to the Community Trust should use the Colorado Common Grant Application. Application guidelines are detailed here.
Giving range: Community Trust grants are generally below $10,000.
Assets: $33.7 million.
Total giving: The Foundation gave $292,300 in Community Trust grants in 2010.
The 2011 Annual Report can be accessed from this page.
