Inspired by the legacy of giving within Denver communities, and the success of the Cleveland Foundation, a group of like-minded Denverites created The Denver Foundation. The Resolution and Declaration of Trust were filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Colorado, November 30, 1925.

From the start, we had a forward-thinking mindset. The 1926 charter notes that the focus was on equipping donors with opportunities and tools they needed and creating an endowment or fund that was promised to grow, sustain itself, and remain beneficial for years, decades, and now centuries to come.

The initial charter specifically states that work would focus on the City and County of Denver. We began expanding beyond this region over time, and the charter was officially updated in 1975 to allow funding in “Colorado, especially metropolitan Denver.”

The Denver Foundation was one of the first 25 community foundations in the U.S.

Our original Distribution Committee, now called Board of Trustees, included entrepreneur John Kernan “J.K.” Mullen, educator Emily Griffith, plumbing supplier Martin O’Fallon, industrialist J.F. Welborn, insurance executive F.W. Standart, and Judge Ira C. Rothgerber, all volunteers. They held their first meeting in the offices of the Colorado National Bank. There were no funds to distribute just yet; that had to wait another year. Colorado National was among five Denver banks—the others were American National, Denver National, International Trust, and United States National—who spearheaded our founding. First National Bank joined this sponsor group in 1929.

Authored by State Senator Francis J. Knauss, the legislature passed a bill that allowed Colorado’s community foundations to accept charitable gifts—enabling The Denver Foundation to exist.

At the forefront of the issues facing the city’s residents during this time was the undeniable political and social influence of the Ku Klux Klan, which manifested in anti-Catholic, anti-Black, and anti-immigrant rhetoric, demonstrations, and even violence in and around Denver. Benjamin F. Stapleton, Denver’s mayor, was a Klan member in the early 1920s, as was Sen. Knauss.

Though Klan connections weren’t uncommon at the time, today we address them with the directness they deserve. We stand against the ideologies and affiliations of the author of this legislation and we remain committed to advancing equity and inclusion in all aspects of our work.

We received our first gift in 1927 from Distribution Committee member John Kernan “J.K.” Mullen. Irish-born Mullen founded the Colorado Mining and Elevator Company and was also known for his success in the flour mill industry. Mullen’s $1,000 donation paved the way for our first grant to support the Community Chest of Denver, which we know today as Mile High United Way.

We received our first permanent endowment in November 1929, from Alice Coleman in the amount of $3,402. The Alice Sherwin Coleman Fund was set up to benefit three agencies: the Ladies Relief Society, Adult Blind Home, and Sands House. The Adult Blind Home and Sands House are no longer in operation.

The foundation has since applied the funds to similar organizations with like-minded purposes, like the National Sports Center for Disabled and the Anchor Center for Blind Children. Coleman’s gift was just the first of many such endowments that have helped sustain The Denver Foundation’s work.

Even when the nonprofit landscape changes, funds like these allow flexibility, while still honoring donor intent.

The Great Depression magnified needs, and that meant an uptick in charitable organizations and social welfare programs nationally, including the federal government’s “New Deal” programs. When Denverites couldn’t sign up due to age, ability, or illness, we stepped in. Our funds served orphaned and abandoned children through the Denver Orphans’ Home, Colorado Christian Home, and St. Clara’s Orphanage. We also awarded grants to youth centers, non–religiously affiliated community centers, and boards of education. We continue to support these same issues today.

Until the welcome arrival of an effective tuberculosis (TB) cure in the late 1940s, we granted funds for the care and housing of those who settled in Denver to recover from TB between the 1930s and 1940s. Colorado’s dry climate was thought to aid and even cure those with TB, a disease that afflicted tens of thousands of Americans. In our early history, we provided grants to individuals for medical and welfare needs.

In 1931, we began funding the Santa Shop, a holiday toy shop supported by individuals and philanthropic organizations to bring joy to those struggling financially during the holiday season. Parents “shopped” with dignity to fulfill their children’s Christmas wishes. Longtime volunteer Orville Whitford saved vacation time so he could take off from his day job yearly to manage the Santa Shop. He and fellow organizer Agnes Beisner loved seeing the joy it brought to more than 4,000 children its first year and chose to volunteer every year afterwards for two decades. The Denver Foundation supported the Santa Shop for more than 50 years.

Our earliest grant toward an educational cause went to Denver-area teachers to feed students who lacked “proper nourishment.” The grant provided lunches at school and additional meals at community centers. Even today, we remain committed to the many organizations that support teachers and students through our focus on youth well-being and education.

The first 10 years’ gifts to the foundation totaled more than $74,474. From those gifts, we granted funds to more than 11,000 people. Grants helped with housing for older adults, physical rehab and prosthetics for returning World War I soldiers, dental care and braces for children, tuberculosis treatment, homelessness, and more. People filled out the applications themselves, and we paid the grants directly to their landlord or hospital. Supporting those who are unhoused is still a priority today.

Distribution Committee member Lawrence C. Phipps, Jr. assumed leadership of The Denver Foundation as a volunteer. He was one of the founders of the Nevada-California Electric Company and later a director of Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Co. He led The Denver Foundation for more than thirty years, remaining in this role until 1973, when Frank Foster volunteered as executive director.

In 1936, we began managing the Neighborhood House Association Fund, a consolidated trust dedicated to children and children’s issues. This expanded our longtime relationship—a relationship that went back to our founding—with the Neighborhood House Association, a community center in one of Denver’s immigrant-majority neighborhoods. The child care facility doubled as a community center, gymnasium, classroom, library, and more.

As World War II erupted, many mothers found themselves in the workforce, creating a great need for child care assistance and other support. As grant applications poured in, we supported child care programs, daycare facilities, and community centers. Our partnerships with many of these organizations lasted well beyond the end of the war and continue to this day, including support for the Mile High Childcare Association, which we still funded decades later.

The past 10 years’ gifts to The Denver Foundation totaled $243,456—more than triple the previous decade’s gifts.

We responded to the polio health crisis by funding the St. Anne’s Home and other organizations dedicated to caring for children afflicted with polio. We also provided funds to create an educational film that was distributed to schools, libraries, fraternities, and churches. The film highlighted the history and prevalence of the poliovirus, taught the public how to recognize the signs of the disease, and shed light on the polio vaccine.

The past 10 years’ gifts to The Denver Foundation totaled $176,882.

We received a $100,000 gift from the estate of George K. Miller which significantly increased our gift-giving capacity. This gift came at a time when we were expanding our scope of aid, and we granted $12,932 of it to help Denver residents in 1958.

In the era of the Civil Rights Movement, we stepped in to fill gaps in social services that had fallen out of the scope of state aid. We secured support for early education programs through Denver Opportunity, which is today a part of Head Start. We also funded rehabilitation programs through House of Hope for those experiencing addiction, and we ensured that those in need had access to legal counsel through the Legal Aid Society of Denver.

We increased our grants for educational museum exhibits, plays, films, speaker series, and much more. One initiative honored Larry Tajiri, who wrote a column on theater and the arts, and was one of the first people of color to have a byline at The Denver Post. After he passed away in 1965, we created the Larry Tajiri Memorial Fund and awarded 39 awards to individuals in the Denver theater scene over the next few decades.

The past 10 years’ gifts to The Denver Foundation totaled $300,060.

We brought on our first executive director, Frank Foster, a volunteer who served in that role for three years. Under Foster’s leadership, the foundation invested in training opportunities for its volunteers with the aim of fostering professional development and best practices.

The flourishing number of assets called for even more help. Foster and a new part-time secretary focused on the foundation’s growth and went to work on a new priority: preparing The Denver Foundation to apply for tax-exempt status.

For the better part of our history, we provided grants to individuals for medical care, housing, or child care. During this time, our grantmaking shifted away from that and toward grants to nonprofits with the goal of making a bigger impact. 

Following the 1969 tax reform and the creation of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, we shifted to only giving grants to 501(c)(3) nonprofits. This created new meaningful relationships with nonprofits who understood community needs and had boots on the ground.

We look back at 1975 as a critical year for us: It marked our 50th anniversary, and we surpassed $1 million in grants given to the community – grants to individuals, hospitals, and community organizations. It also marked an acceleration in our grantmaking — the culmination of five decades of concerted stewardship as Denver’s community trust.

The past 10 years’ gifts to The Denver Foundation totaled $448,105.

Distribution Committee member Patti Jeanne Harrington was hired as our first paid executive director, and second-ever director. During Harrington’s first year in leadership our total assets grew by 50%, to $2.8 million. Harrington served as director for the next 13 years.

At the time, the foundation supported the War on Drugs Campaign, granting aid to programs training formerly incarcerated individuals to be counselors for youth seen to be at-risk of or engaging in current drug use.

We now recognize the harmful effects of this $1 trillion campaign, which made racial divides worse and trampled civil liberties. However, this approach, looking at community assets to better serve communities, would become a precursor to future programs.

We formed our first advisory committee focused on health and human services. Before long, we had received $150,000 in unsolicited contributions to augment human services grants. Other advisory committees followed: civic and education, and art and culture.

In 1926, wealthy Denver socialite Frances A. Moffat’s last will and testament provided for the lifetime care of her granddaughter. It also directed that any subsequent funds go to The Denver Foundation. Those with the ability to give away money during their life or once they had passed typically had two goals: Take care of family, then give to causes dear to their hearts.

With the granddaughter’s passing, the Frances A. Moffat Fund—likely our first-ever donor-advised fund—became available for our charitable giving purposes. In the 1970s and ’80s, many such funds—planned and readied for decades—became available for the foundation’s giving purposes.

We partnered with the Chevron Corporation to create the nearly $1 million Chevron Fund. That fund, the foundation’s first corporate endowment, was dedicated to developing “creative solutions to meet community needs,” a theme close to the foundation’s heart. The Chevron Corporation chose only eight American cities in which to sponsor community funds at that time, and The Denver Foundation paved the way for Denver to be chosen as one of those cities.

The oil industry has always been a strong force in Colorado, as it is all over the world. Chevron was among many companies who struck oil in the fields of Colorado, as they acquired the Rangely Field in the 1930s, adding to the complicated history of oil and our state.

A passion for giving lived on after Irene Rothgerber’s passing, when she left $8 million toward solutions for issues facing Metro Denver families. Irene’s father, Judge Ira Rothgerber, was on our founding board (then known as the Distribution Committee) and, like him, Irene kept abreast of the community’s needs.

Housed within The Denver Foundation’s The Fund for Denver, the foundation’s permanent endowment, the original $8 million testamentary gift has contributed to more than $98 million in grants. Thousands of individuals and many nonprofits throughout Denver have benefited from Rothgerber’s act of kindness.

The past 10 years’ gifts to The Denver Foundation totaled $9,453,594—a more than 20x increase over the previous decade’s contributions.

We established a corporation to allow The Denver Foundation to receive gifts directly and to manage the endowments we receive. Now, with our own corpus, the foundation directs its own funds to important causes and fills in gaps as they arise.

Mayor Federico Peña created City Arts III, a program we administered to distribute tax money collected through the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) in support of Metro Denver arts and cultural organizations. While we no longer administer this fund, today, as CityArts, the program increases access to public art and cultural experiences for all who live in and visit the city.

Robert E. “Bob” Lee took over as our new executive director, the organization’s third, succeeding our first paid executive director, Patti Jean Harrington, in that role. Lee served as director until 1996.

We renamed our Distribution Committee—which had carried that moniker since our founding—the Board of Trustees to more clearly reflect its role.

As of 1995, existing members elected all new board members, with the total number ranging from 15 to 21. Board members served up to two three-year terms, and, to avoid conflicts of interest, and public officials and nonprofit employees were ineligible.

Today, we still allow the same number of members. We started accepting nonprofit employees as board members to ensure that important constituency was reflected in our work.

The past 10 years’ gifts to The Denver Foundation totaled $37,858,044.

We created the Summit of Seven Fund in collaboration with Mayor Wellington Webb to fundraise and advocate for an informal meeting of international leaders from Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.S.

In a surprise turn of events, the president of Russia joined, making it the Summit of the Eight (now known as the Group of 8, or G8). This effort to create space for political discourse proved key to the foundation’s efforts in helping lay the groundwork for bringing the Democratic National Convention to Denver in 2008.

David Miller, The Denver Foundation’s fourth director, assumed that role from Bob Lee. Miller became president and CEO in 2002, a role he held until 2016, making him our longest serving paid executive director to date. His leadership oversaw and encouraged major inclusivity and racial equity work for the organization. Additionally, Miller’s tenure saw significant asset growth, with totals growing from $58 million to $700 million.

A National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy survey recommended that the foundation better connect with the communities we served. We launched a new survey campaign in Denver neighborhoods, with volunteers and committee members meeting with community members and former grantees.

Thoughtful changes allowed us to reach communities on a more personal level, viewing residents as assets and listening to their ideas. This work set the stage for deeper diversity, equity and inclusion work, including Strengthening Neighborhoods, the Inclusivity Project, and follow-up research through the Landscape Project.

After listening closely to the community’s recommendations, we created the Strengthening Neighborhoods program, which opened the door to grassroots community organizations that aim to help solve neighborhood issues from within. This action has not only resulted in the revitalization of communities throughout the region but has helped support the development of dozens of new organizations and hundreds, if not thousands, of resident leaders, many of whom have risen to regional and national prominence. 

The Strengthening Neighborhoods Program has granted more than $9.6 million to more than 1,100 grassroots-led groups. The program’s first grant was awarded to Cultivando, an organization we still support today.  (learn more)

The Latin American Educational Foundation (LAEF) established its endowment fund in 1999. Agency-advised funds and agency endowed funds are low-cost options that will invest a nonprofit’s funds for the future, supporting the organization’s mission – even if it changes with time. Over time, LAEF has received more money from the fund than what they’ve contributed, and without having to touch the original amount invested. This is possible because the original investment has continued to grow, ensuring long-term support for LAEF. The LAEF Endowment Fund is now the longest open agency fund at The Denver Foundation, and one of four endowed funds established by the Latin American Educational Foundation.

The Inclusiveness Project sought to financially support community organizations in training and recruiting more diverse staff—staff who reflected their own community, but who might not have been previously qualified. The project emerged in response to community feedback on the need for organizations to diversify their staff, committees, and boards. The foundation staff searched for how other nonprofits in the philanthropy sector were supporting diversity policies within their organizations, but didn’t find any formal frameworks and policies to ensure their diversity practices were sustainable. Unable to find adequate tools, the staff decided to make them themselves. 

The Inclusiveness Project encouraged many Denver organizations—both grassroots and well-established nonprofits—to join the pursuit of becoming more equitable establishments within their community. Most of this effort took place before Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work was mainstream—before 2020, the response to George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police, and the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2011, the project also received the National Council on Foundations’ Critical Impact Award.

Roger Reisher created the Reisher Scholars Program at The Denver Foundation in 2001. Born in Nebraska in 1928, Reisher went on to a career in banking and a place in the Colorado Business Hall of Fame. Since 2001, the program has awarded nearly $39 million in scholarships to help more than 2,400 students complete their degrees at nine partner schools around Colorado. Today, the Reisher Scholars program is on track to become the largest private scholarship provider in Colorado. (learn more)

Frances Charsky was a successful investor and financier who, with her husband, Louis, managed properties in the Denver area. Charsky left her valuable collections of fine antiques, jewelry, art, and more to the foundation. 

After her passing in 2003, the real estate was sold and her collections were auctioned at $30 million. The funds went directly to our Community Endowment, now called The Fund for Denver, making it the biggest unrestricted gift to the foundation to date. 

Frances Charsky’s unrestricted fund contributed to more than $92.7 million in grants. The funds are doing exactly what Charsky wanted: helping those in need in the city she loved.

Kaiser Permanente partnered with us to maximize their philanthropic impact by setting up a business donor-advised fund. Through the years, the Kaiser Permanente Community Health Fund has granted more than $64.4 million to 266 unique grantees to support housing initiatives, medical research, and economic opportunity–building enterprises across Colorado.

The past 10 years’ gifts to The Denver Foundation totaled $284,496,885—a more than 7x increase over the previous decade.

Originally created to meet basic human needs such as food, heat, and shelter for the most vulnerable people in Metro Denver after the 2001 economic downturn, the Critical Needs Fund grew dramatically in 2008 to provide immediate relief as food pantries across Denver felt the strain. Donors gave approximately $2 million to the fund between 2008 and 2009. 

Today, it’s our most responsive fund when emergencies arise and it has expanded to include other pressing needs. Thanks to more than 611 donations, we have granted more than $4.5 million to 121 organizations. The fund has supported the families impacted by the Marshall Fire and communities reeling from mass shootings in Boulder, Aurora, and Denver.

When the IRS restricted the way scholarships are administered from donor-advised funds, we restructured and formalized our scholarships to honor donors’ wishes while complying with the changes. The result was a revamped scholarship portfolio with unified timelines, unified criteria, and new processes to ensure that the scholarships are as equitable as possible. 

The Denver Foundation manages more than 80 scholarships, including the Reisher Scholars Program, which is on track to become the largest private scholarship provider in Colorado. (learn more) We also manage an endowed scholarship fund established by Helen McLoraine. McLoraine, a leader in business and philanthropy, founded The Pioneer Fund to support charitable causes in education, youth social welfare, and medical research. After her passing, the fund established several endowed scholarship funds, among other funds, ensuring her legacy of generosity endures for generations.

In partnership with Mayor John Hickenlooper, we raised funds to support nonpolitical events at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, held in Denver. This was an historic event where the Democratic Party nominated Barack Obama as its candidate for president. This effort built on our success in 1996 fostering bipartisan discourse around the Summit of Eight, or G8. Philanthropy transcends politics, bringing us together across party lines.

In October, we released the results of a listening campaign that asked nearly 800 Metro Denver residents what they envisioned for the community’s future. Our trustees and staff used the findings to craft a new 10-year strategic plan, which refocused funding from our Community Endowment into three primary areas identified by the community: economic opportunity, basic human needs, and education.

A group of Black men came together with The Denver Foundation to start our first giving circle, which was also our first giving circle for communities of color, and the first African-American male giving circle in Colorado and the West. 

They created the Denver African-American Philanthropist (DAAP) giving circle as an intentional space for Black philanthropists to direct how they are investing and how funds are distributed to the communities they seek to support. DAAP has granted more than $112,000 to 29 unique organizations. 

Since 2012, the Giving Circle movement has greatly expanded, adding the Colorado Asian American Pacific Islander Circle and LatinasGive! to name a few. (learn more)

By the end of 2013, our assets exceeded $682 million, and that year’s grants exceeded $50 million. The community foundation concept has proven very successful in Denver.

Partnering with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the City and County of Denver, we created the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. The initiative supports organizations as they hire and train individuals who were previously unhoused to counsel others experiencing homelessness. Montbello Organizing Committee’s affordable housing development, FreshLo Hub, is an example of a project supported under this initiative.

The past 10 years’ gifts to The Denver Foundation totaled $711,334,968.

Christine Márquez-Hudson assumed the role of our president and CEO until 2019, only the fifth paid director in the organization’s history. Márquez-Hudson worked closely with local officials, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, to explore how business, government, and philanthropy can come together to create change. She brought her unique perspectives, entrepreneurial spirit, and belief that change starts close to home to the organization.

Prompted by Mayor Michael B. Hancock’s executive order “Standing with Immigrants and Refugees: A Safe and Welcoming City for All of Denver’s People,” we began providing support and funding for nonprofits to add community-focused immigration attorney fellows and paralegals to their staff. Our Denver Immigrant Legal Services Fund assisted with immigrants’ representation fees and language interpretation. This fund has granted more than $3.12 million to nonprofits that have provided direct legal services to 6,172 Denver residents.

Javier Alberto Soto became our president and CEO in October 2019. Before that, Soto served for 10 years as president and CEO of The Miami Foundation. Since joining The Denver Foundation, Soto has led the development of a new strategic framework, continuing our commitment to racial equity and deepening our policy and advocacy work. He also led the mobilization of significant resources to help the area respond to the COVID-19 crisis. 

When Soto first started, he embarked on a bike tour of Metro Denver, cycling through all of Denver’s 78 neighborhoods and its surrounding counties. Along the way, he has met with community leaders to discuss key issues and strengthen connections between the community and the foundation. The bike tour is an ongoing effort that continues to this day.

We moved to our new location, Casa Grande, at 10th Ave. and Grant Street to be in the heart of the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood and closer to many of the communities we partner with. 

Built in 1929, Casa Grande is part of the Sherman/Grant Historic District, known for its stretches of distinctive Art Deco and Streamline Moderne buildings built for Denver’s burgeoning middle class. On one of those stretches, known locally as “Poets Row,” most of the buildings are named for Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Thomas Carlyle, Emily Dickinson and other traditional literary giants. 

This is the first building we owned outright after decades of meeting in offices, clubs, and rented spaces, such as the Pearce-McAllister Cottage owned by the Colorado Historical Society. (learn more)

Within the first month of COVID’s presence in Colorado, we raised more than $1 million to support organizations fighting the impacts of the pandemic and the systemic inequities it exposed. We also created the COVID-19 Arts & Culture Relief Fund in partnership with Bonfils-Stanton Foundation. We distributed more than $2 million to 72 nonprofit organizations across Metro Denver.

The Black Resilience in Colorado (BRIC) Fund is the first Black-focused community fund established in Colorado, providing financial resources and support to Black-led and Black-serving organizations. 

Since 2020, the fund has granted more than $4 million to more than 300 organizations that support economic opportunities, emerging needs, health, housing, racial justice, and youth. 

BRIC is a movement for change that addresses systemic racism and inequities in Colorado and aims to achieve sustained growth within Black communities to ensure they thrive.

After two years of listening and gathering feedback, we announced our new strategic framework, a guiding light for the foundation over the next decade (2021-2031). 

Rather than a static road map, it is a flexible, living document that will evolve in response to changing community needs. 

The framework outlined new strategic priority areas, announced a deeper commitment to policy and advocacy work, and created an innovative new model of engaged philanthropy. We updated the strategic framework in 2025 to include youth well-being as a priority area. (learn more)

Building on a tradition of community organizing, we developed a policy framework and hired staff dedicated to executing the foundation’s approach to policy change. This team is responsible for advocating for policy change, taking policy positions at local and state level, serving in coalitions, convening stakeholders, hosting events, and creating the Civic Fabric Fund. The Civic Fabric Fund funds organizations working on policy, coalition building, and voter engagement efforts. The fund has granted more than $1 million to 32 grantees in just its first few years.

The Emily Griffith Foundation established the Emily Griffith Opportunity Fund in 2023, an agency-endowed fund, to continue to support access to education, decades after Emily Griffith’s passing in 1947. A visionary educator and the founder of the Emily Griffith Opportunity School, Griffith was an original member of our Distribution Committee at our founding in 1925.

As we celebrate 100 years of impact, we reflect on the remarkable growth and generosity that have shaped our journey. We have awarded $1.5 billion in grants to nonprofits across the Denver Metro region and beyond. We have also received $2.1 billion in gifts from generous donors and fundholders. Our assets grew from the initial $1,000 gift to $1.3 billion.

Since 2001, we have supported 13,060 unique grantees and helped 1,562 fundholders with their giving. We have also grown the Fund for Denver, our permanent endowment to $207 million thanks to 1,493 individual donations.

Philanthropy, at its heart, is generosity. Giving of time and talent is philanthropy, just as much as giving money. We envision a world where everyone can see themselves as a philanthropist, and where everyone has a say in how their charity shapes the future. 

These milestones demonstrate the ongoing commitment of our community to driving meaningful change. During the next century and beyond we will continue to meet the ever-changing needs of our city.