Pictured above: Denver Mayor Federico Peña with Caterina (Noya) Scordo. Mayor Federico Peña oversaw the creation of the CityArts Program in 1988.
This is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of our book, “A Century of Impact: The Denver Foundation’s First 100 Years.” It offers a glimpse into the history of the foundation, highlighting how we’ve grown and adapted over time.
The Denver Foundation has a long history of partnering with local officials to create positive change for the city. From the foundation’s start in 1925, elected officials such as mayors and judges appointed its Distribution Committee members as a way to ensure that the community’s opinions and perspectives reached the ears of the foundation’s leadership. The foundation was created to be community-driven at its core.
Over the past decades, Metro Denver leaders have continued to trust the foundation—as a nonpartisan partner—to manage complex initiatives. For example, the foundation administered the CityArts Program from its inception in 1988, when it was known as City Arts III.
An executive order from Mayor Federico Peña created the program, which distributed tax money collected through the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) to support Denver arts and cultural organizations. The Denver Foundation handed off management responsibilities to the city in 1995, as the program evolved. Today, SCFD funding continues to increase access to public art and cultural experiences for all who live in and visit the city.
In 1996, Mayor Wellington E. Webb personally reached out to request that the foundation begin fundraising to support the Summit of the Seven being held in Denver the following year. The summit was to be an informal meeting of international leaders from Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States that would put Denver on the world-political map. In a surprise turn of events, the president of Russia also joined, making it the Summit of the Eight, now called the Group of Eight, or G8. The foundation’s fund for the Summit of the Eight greatly contributed to the historic meeting of leaders, creating space for political discourse. It also laid the groundwork for the foundation’s subsequent involvement in fostering bipartisan political engagement, including fundraising to support nonpolitical events at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.
In 2017, Mayor Michael B. Hancock signed Executive Order 142, “Standing with Immigrants and Refugees: A Safe and Welcoming City for All of Denver’s People.” The order sought to increase Denver’s capacity to welcome immigrants and process their individual cases. To help do that, the City and County of Denver created the Denver Immigrant Legal Services Fund and selected The Denver Foundation to manage it. The fund provides resources for nonprofits to provide legal services to immigrants, refugees, and asylees who are residents of Denver.
