A calling close to home
Life-changing encounters rarely announce themselves. For Jaclyn Yelich, it arrived quietly in the passenger seat of a car, a $20 bill handed to a stranger on a Montana street corner by a woman who couldn’t really afford it but gave it anyway. For Frank Anello, it came through an unexpected encounter with a refugee family from Burma living just across town, a relationship that turned years of plans to do good work overseas into something much more urgent and close to home. These moments eventually led them both to the extraordinary community that has grown around Project Worthmore. The world has come to Denver, and for the past 15 years, Project Worthmore, Frank Anello, and Jaclyn Yelich have been here to greet them.
The start of something more
Frank Anello is not the kind of person who turns down a challenge. When others run marathons, he’s running ultras. And while he may be knocking out 100s of miles for fun, he’s never one to walk past a neighbor in need. As the Co-founder and Executive Director of Project Worthmore, none of this was really a choice for Frank; it’s a calling.
In 2009, Frank Anello and his wife Carolyn began working with a refugee family from Burma through their church. At the time, the couple had imagined traveling overseas to do mission work. Carolyn, trained in global migration health policy and dental hygiene, and Frank, preparing to become a nurse. But as they got to know that family, they realized something unexpected: a large refugee community had already been living around them in Denver, unnoticed for years.
“We thought we had to cross the ocean,” Frank recalled, “but we really just needed to cross the street.” Helping that first family quickly grew into helping several more. Word spread within the refugee community, and soon the Anellos’ home became an informal hub for support. Friends dropped off clothing and food donations. English lessons were held on apartment floors. Families stopped by with questions about everything from reading mail to accessing dental care.
In the early years, Frank balanced his growing volunteer commitment with long hours working in Denver’s restaurant industry. During the day, he coordinated services for refugee families. In the afternoon, he coached cross-country at a local high school. In the evening, he managed shifts at restaurants, sometimes working until after midnight. The work was exhausting, but Frank never considered stopping.
“I told my wife, ‘I’m going to keep volunteering,’” he said. “This is what I’m supposed to be doing.” Then something remarkable happened. A group of donors who had been watching the organization’s growth stepped forward to fund Frank’s salary for two years so he could focus on the work full-time. “That’s when things really started to take off,” he said.
Today, Project Worthmore operates a 12-chair dental clinic with more than 10,000 patients in its system, serving as a teaching facility for the University of Colorado’s dental program at the Anschutz Medical Campus. They run a thriving English-language program in partnership with Emily Griffith Technical College, where more than 600 students enrolled in 2025, with open enrollment, on-site babysitting, and no need to take the bus downtown.
“DAF holders can help feed people. They can help people access their dental benefits, find employment, and find dignified places to live. But more than that, you can come here and actually have a relationship with the people you’re helping. That’s the most beautiful part.”
They operate Delaney Community Farm in Aurora, supplying local restaurants, selling vegetables at the City Park Farmers Market, selling CSA (Community Supported Agriculture memberships, and staffing the operation almost entirely with farmers from Somalia, Mauritania, Burma, and Afghanistan. Their food program, now transforming into an appointment-based market model with grocery carts and fresh produce, serves over 300 community members in a single two-to-three-hour window.
Project Worthmore serves people from more than 30 countries. Walk into the dental clinic, and you’ll hear Arabic, Somali, Burmese, Nepali, and Dari. Staff members who once fled war or poverty now provide the care, answer the phones, and grow the food, some of them former dentists in their home countries, now working as dental assistants while pursuing pathways back into their profession through partnerships with the Spring Institute and the University of Colorado Anschutz.
And they can do this great work in part because of their donors’ support. Many of whom are involved in ways much deeper than simply writing a check. Jaclyn Yelich is the perfect example.
What an engaged donor really looks like
When Jaclyn Yelich reflects on her lifelong commitment to giving, she doesn’t start with a balance sheet or a financial strategy; she starts with her mother.
Growing up in rural Montana as one of six children, resources were limited, but generosity was abundant. Jaclyn remembers driving down Main Street with her mother when they saw a man holding a sign asking for help. Her mother pulled over and handed him $20, a significant sum at the time. Jaclyn knew that the gift meant fewer groceries that week.
“She told me, ‘Jaclyn, this person probably needs this money more than we do.’”
That brief moment resonated in huge ways. It taught her that generosity is made up of acts large and small, and taking care of one another is what you do. Years later, as a college student newly exposed to public radio, she made her first recurring gift to Montana Public Radio, $5 a month. She realized that organizations serving the public depend on the public. No matter where she has lived or what her financial circumstances have been, Jaclyn has continued to give.
That spirit of generosity eventually led her to The Denver Foundation. For years, Jaclyn used her donor-advised fund (DAF) for more transactional giving but found herself wanting something deeper. Through events she attended and conversations she had with others at the foundation, she began to think differently about her philanthropy. “Instead of writing a check here and a check there, I became more intentional,” she said. “I’d always had an interest in supporting women, children, immigrants, and refugees, and I discovered this amazing place that was doing that in Denver.” Jaclyn made her first gift to Project Worthmore through her DAF, but it was only the beginning.
Before long, Jaclyn was showing up in person, volunteering to support diaper distribution, learning the names of the families coming through, and getting a firsthand sense of what the organization was building. She organized a community book drive, collecting donated books for families who were learning English and hungry for resources. And then she decided to become a monthly donor, a sustained, reliable commitment that Frank says, “Makes a genuine operational difference.”
Then came the libraries. Frank had been dreaming about installing small community libraries in Project Worthmore’s new courtyard, a welcoming outdoor space taking shape as part of the organization’s major building renovation. Alongside another Project Worthmore employee and noted Denver musician Jamie Laurie, who shared Jaclyn’s love of books, Jaclyn and Jamie helped build a multilingual library stocked with bilingual books reflecting the many languages spoken by families served there. The idea expanded into something more: a series of community libraries in the courtyard, anchoring a space designed for gathering, celebration, and belonging. “It was a true partnership,” notes Jaclyn when talking about the evolution of this community-centered project.
That’s the arc of what engaged giving can look like: a shared meal becoming a shared mission, a single donation becoming a decade-long relationship, a book drive becoming a courtyard full of possibilities. Jaclyn’s involvement didn’t follow a prescribed donor journey. It grew organically, driven by curiosity, proximity, and genuine care for the community Project Worthmore serves. It’s an opportunity and an invitation to everyone in this community to get more involved and take action today.
It’s a model Frank hopes more fundholders discover. The need for flexible, relationship-driven philanthropic support has never been more urgent.
“DAF holders can help feed people. They can help people access their dental benefits, find employment, and find dignified places to live,” Frank says. “But more than that, you can come here and actually have a relationship with the people you’re helping. That’s the most beautiful part.”
An invitation to get involved
For Jaclyn, supporting Project Worthmore is more than philanthropy. It feels like coming home. To the immigrant communities she grew up around, to hardworking families who support one another, to the people who share what they have. “It’s just a privilege to support Project Worthmore. So many people had to leave their homes, their old lives, and build new ones here. Their circumstances are difficult, but I see people finding new jobs and creating better lives for their children. I find so much hope inside those walls.”
Intentional giving, rooted in relationships and partnerships, doesn’t just sustain organizations. It strengthens communities and helps families thrive. Just as Jaclyn’s life was impacted by a simple interaction, Frank Anello and the lives of thousands of refugees in Colorado were as well.
According to Frank, “A lot of people want their children and their families to experience different cultures, and meet different people, and they spend tens of thousands of dollars to travel and have this one-and-done opportunity. You can do all of that right here in your own backyard. You can meet people from all over the world, you can build stronger families, and you can be part of a beautiful community, without having to fly anywhere.”
Frank has a vision for what that means, long term: “In 10, 20 years, their kids can be like, I remember going to that dental clinic. I remember helping my neighbors. That inspires generosity and builds a community.”
And for those looking to make a difference without boarding a plane, Frank has a simple invitation: “Come in. Take a tour. Meet the people. See the market, the clinic, the farm program, and the courtyard with its new community libraries. I feel like if you could walk away from what’s going on here and not want to be involved, I’d be shocked,” he says, with a quiet confidence that comes from 15 years of building something beautiful.
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To learn more about Project Worthmore, visit their website or contact Frank. To learn more about opening a donor-advised fund or giving from your existing donor-advised fund, contact us today at Information@denverfoundation.org.
