Nonprofits are facing growing challenges due to federal funding cuts and ongoing uncertainty, threatening essential programs and services. As an organization that prioritizes listening to community needs, we asked all our partners, including nonprofits, donors, and our ACCI (Advisory Committee for Community Impact), how we can support them now. In response, we are stepping up to fill critical gaps, provide resources that help organizations continue serving communities, and help fundholders make the biggest impact.
In response to this feedback, we are:
- Funding legal support. We are supporting Colorado Nonprofit Association and Colorado Lawyer’s Committee to expand legal advice clinics and a legal match program to help nonprofits receive legal support around compliance with executive orders, risk assessments, and other key legal concerns. These clinics can also help with other general legal issues for nonprofits.
- Supporting immigrant-serving organizations. Recently, we activated our Critical Needs Fund—our most rapid response fund—to address the looming crisis impacting our immigrant neighbors who have come here seeking freedom and opportunity. Earlier this year, our president & CEO, Javier Alberto Soto, invited the community to join The Denver Foundation’s efforts. Thanks to our generous donors, we raised $236,500. This has allowed us to award a total of $380,000 to 21 grantees—primarily through our Critical Needs Fund, with some support from other funds. We will continue to activate this fund throughout the year to respond to federal threats.
- Connecting donors and nonprofits. We heard from nonprofits that they need additional support with the loss of federal funding, and we heard from donors that they wanted to know where they could give to make the biggest impact. To meet that need, we are planning donor-nonprofit convenings to bring these groups together. We held our first one in June focused on the federal budget and its impact on Colorado. At the end, we invited donors to contribute to our Civic Fabric Fund, or any of the many impacted nonprofits in the room. Our next donor-nonprofit event will be held in August and will focus on food insecurity, and in September we will discuss higher education.
- Highlighting new support from our Capacity Building grants. We offer Capacity Building grants in a variety of areas for organizations that have received a grant from us within the last three years. We are highlighting several funding categories that may be particularly helpful for nonprofits right now: fundraising and fund diversification, and strategic planning and operational planning. We added a newly eligible activity for scenario planning.
- Expanding grants to help policy coalitions conduct outreach to their federal delegation. Through our Civic Fabric Fund, we support nonprofits’ policy and advocacy efforts, including the critical activities of supporting state and local policy change, and voter registration and engagement. We now also offer grants to support policy coalitions in response to federal and or related state/local work, engage in direct outreach to federal representatives and senators urging actions on issues directly related to our work, and participate in coalition work on state issues designed to mitigate impact of federal budget and other decisions.
- Creating funding to help laid-off nonprofit workers. While we do not want to see job loss, we know that many nonprofits are facing required staff reductions because of loss in funding. We will be working with Jewish Family Services to offer this support including goal setting, resume building, interview preparation, and more to as many as 100 nonprofit workers who may, unfortunately, lose their jobs due to cuts in federal funding.
- Giving more to higher ed. We are also offering money to support higher education institutions who may be receiving cuts to TRiO grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Federal Work Study, and Graduate School Direct Student Loans.
For 100 years, The Denver Foundation has been responding to the needs of this community. We’ve weathered a world war, economic recessions, and a global pandemic, continuing to exist as a nonprofit, while also continuing to support nonprofits in our community when they are in need. We are pleased to continue to do this important work.
