Every year, we revisit our strategic framework and see how things are going. Four years into implementation, we decided to make some changes. As a learning organization, it is important to ensure that we are always listening to the community and adapting to its needs. Rather than a static road map, our strategic framework is a flexible, living document that will evolve. And we are evolving.
What we discovered from our listening is that we needed to adjust some of our priority areas. We heard from the community that youth mental health is an increasing priority. Feedback from nonprofit grantees, donors and our Advisory Committee for Community Impact all indicated this was an issue The Denver Foundation could not ignore. As we gathered more information, we defined how we would support this area. We gathered feedback during:
- 5 listening sessions with young people in partnership with youth-serving organizations
- conversations with leaders from nonprofits, direct service organizations, funders, and government
From this feedback we determined that we should expand our “education” priority area to include youth mental health. Under this expanded focus area “youth well-being,” we will continue to support school funding and K-12 reforms with a focus on racial equity. In addition, we will also now fund organizations working on youth mental health for K-12-aged children with programs both in the community and in schools.
We also decided to remove transportation as a priority area. After examining our historic funding, we realized that transportation is a bigger need than our limited funding could impact. Additionally, in looking at our funding to transportation organizations over the years, many of our transportation applicants and awarded grantees would continue to be eligible under one of our other priority areas. While transportation will no longer be listed as a priority area in our strategic framework, the interconnected nature of transportation and economic opportunity, environment, and housing means that transportation will continue to be represented.
The Denver Foundation will implement these changes starting in 2025, kicking off during our Cycle 1 2025 Community Grants Program grant cycle. (To learn more about the Community Grants Program, please visit our webpage.) Our priority areas guide all our work, so you will also see these adjustments to our policy and advocacy approach during the 2025 legislative session and as we examine opportunities for our investment strategy.
We’re looking forward to our expansion into youth well-being and can’t wait to see the different ways we can work with all of you to address this important issue.
Thank you for your partnership.