Pictured above: Mile High WorkShop Inc, a Community Grants Program grantee. Photo courtesy of Armando Geneyro.
Insights from our Community Grants Program grantees
From January 2024 to June 2025, we funded 150 organizations with $7.7 million in grants through our Community Grants Program. Through that funding, nonprofits made a big impact:
- 42,962 clients served by housing support
- 37,797 students* benefited from education and well-being opportunities and services
- 18,420 clients benefited from workforce development services
- 17,128 clients benefited from community wealth-building services
*In 2025, we expanded our “education” priority area to include youth mental health. Under this expanded focus area, “youth well-being,” we continued to support school funding and K-12 reforms with a focus on racial equity. We also funded organizations working on youth mental health for K-12-aged children with programs in the community and schools.
The Community Grants Program supports organizations in the seven-county Metro Denver region working in economic opportunity, environment and climate, housing, and youth well-being. This grant supports organizations working to reduce disparities by incorporating community and constituent leadership and racial equity into their approach.
Grantees provided necessary support in our priority funding areas, including:
“We funded 150 organizations with $7.7 million in grants through our Community Grants Program. Through that funding, nonprofits made a big impact.”
- Employment assistance
- Small business technical assistance support
- Immigration legal support
- Financial assistance to cover rent, mortgage , and utilities
- Providing temporary shelter services
- Support in purchasing homes
- Mental health support sessions
- Youth-focused wellness centers
- Solar installation training
To better understand our progress toward our strategic goals and vision, the funded nonprofits shared information about their work and the communities they supported. They also provided insights on how funding supports their work and where improvements could be made.
We summarized the challenges and successes reported by grantees, and the key feedback for The Denver Foundation to consider in future cycles and other areas of our work. References to specific organizations have been removed to protect the anonymity of respondents.
Here’s what we’ve learned:
- The vast majority of grantees (90%+) reported that they are able to engage community members and constituents through their work, community members are actively informing their work, and that communities of color are fully included in planning and decision-making at their organizations.
- Nearly 90% of grantees reported that the grant improved their impact in the community, ability to achieve their goals, and ability to achieve their mission.
Challenges
- The primary challenges experienced by grantees were changing funder priorities, the difficult legal landscape and political climate, and the instability of program participants, which made it difficult to reach constituents.
- The key lessons learned reported by grantees in response to these challenges were the importance of collaborating with the community and partners, adapting from initial goals and strategies, and diversifying their funding sources.
Feedback
- Grantees overwhelmingly had positive feedback for The Denver Foundation and appreciated our trust in their work, experience as partners, commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and flexible funding through the Community Grants Program.
- Opportunities to improve include offering non-traditional reporting, connecting grantees with other funding sources, and providing multi-year funding.
What we’re doing:
- We are discussing these results and exploring multi-year funding to provide more consistent support to grantees.
- We are continuing to connect grantees to other funding sources, sharing information with our donor-advised fundholders who may be interested in supporting more great work from these nonprofits. If you are a donor-advised fundholder interested in supporting any of these nonprofits, please contact your relationship manager.
- We’ve streamlined our application and reporting process to help reduce barriers for nonprofits, especially smaller organizations and those with limited administrative capacity. We are exploring alternative reporting processes for our grantees, holding true to these values.
Thanks to all the grantees who accomplished incredible work.
If you are a nonprofit interested in applying for funding, learn more about our Community Grants Program here.
If you would like to support these efforts, give to The Fund for Denver with a credit card, or through your donor-advised fund at TDF Fund Manager. All gifts count toward our Centennial Campaign.
About our Community Grants Program
The Community Grants Program is The Denver Foundation’s signature funding strategy, which is supported by The Fund for Denver, our permanent endowment. Our permanent endowment is made up of unrestricted gifts to The Denver Foundation given by nearly 1,500 donors in the past 100 years.
