Grants FAQ

For questions about eligibility criteria and any other grant guidelines, please reach out to the email on the grant guidelines page.

For the Community Grants Program, The Denver Foundation prefers to award general operating grants to provide as much flexible funding as possible in order to leverage the funds in the ways they deem most appropriate. Our other grant opportunities vary depending on the purpose of the fund. For more information, please visit the grant guidelines page.

Through our discretionary grantmaking, including the Community Grants Program, Strengthening Neighborhoods, Capacity Building and Civic Fabric funds, we fund organizations that serve the seven-county Denver Metro region — Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties.  

Other grant opportunities may not be limited to Metro Denver. For information on the geographic criteria, please visit the grant guidelines page. 

The foundation funds faith-based organizations. We do not fund religious activities or programs that require an individual to participate in religious activity as a condition of receiving services from those organizations.

Current grantees can apply during either grant cycle if it has been at least 12 months since your last application submission, regardless of the results of your previous submission (approved or declined). 

For our other grant opportunities, specific instructions are included on the grant guidelines page.

Yes, you are encouraged to apply to as many competitive grant opportunities as you are eligible for.

Most of our competitive funds accept applications from collaborative groups. This includes collaboratives made up of several nonprofit organizations, schools, governmental entities, resident groups and nonprofits, or nonprofit and business partnerships. The application must be submitted by a 501(c)(3) organization and that organization will assume fiduciary responsibility for the grant. 

By collaboration, we do not mean an organization that contracts with another organization to provide a specific service for a fee. Funded collaborations likely include shared financial investment by partners, shared planning and accountability, and/or shared staffing. The strongest collaborative applications will come from organizations and groups working together to achieve greater impact and do things in the community that they could not do alone. 

The foundation appreciates hearing about the outcomes that grantees achieved. Grantees can submit their final report through TDF Grant Manager, which is the same portal used to submit applications. Specific due dates for interim or final reports will be noted in TDF Grant Manager.  

For most competitive grant opportunities, the submission of a final report is not a requirement of the grant, but in order to be eligible for future funding, the grantee must submit a final report summarizing the work completed. The grant letter details further information about the grant and reporting instructions. We have streamlined questions on our standard final report to include only essential information about a grantee’s progress and how their work aligns with our core values. Please note that final report questions can vary by fund. 

If you do not see the final report in your account, or if you are unsure who the final report was assigned to, please contact help@denverfoundation.org or call 720.501.3312. 

Grantees should submit their final report through TDF Grant Manager. The final report will be assigned to the person/account who submitted the application. Upon notification of the awarded grant, we will send an email to the individual who submitted the application, prompting them to submit the final report on a specific date. Due dates are typically about a year after the grant is issued, though this varies by grant. If you would like input from someone at your organization who did not submit the application, or an outside grant writer, see question “How can multiple people work on one application?” under Application and Submission for information on the “Collaborator Feature.”

If you do not see the final report in your account, or if you are unsure who the final report was assigned to, please contact help@denverfoundation.org or call 720.501.3312.

When you register on TDF Grant Manager, you will be asked to enter your organization’s “Legal Name” and “Operating Name.” An organization’s legal name is the name listed on your Articles of Incorporation, filed with the Secretary of State and the IRS if your organization has 501(c)(3) status.  

If your organization conducts business using a “doing business as” (DBA) name, that is your organization’s operating name. If your organization has not filed a trade name or DBA with the Secretary of State, your organization’s operating name is the same as your legal name. 

For all competitive grants, you will be required to upload your annual budget. If you are applying for a project grant, you will be required to upload a budget for the project. Additional attachments will vary. Please visit the grant guidelines page for more information.

If your organization uses a fiscal sponsor, it must be a qualified public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Denver Foundation requires a copy of your current, fully executed fiscal sponsorship agreement signed by both parties. You will be required to upload this agreement in your application.

Yes, you can save progress on your application. We encourage you to regularly save your information to prevent losing work if the system times out.

Go to TDF Grant Manager – Strengthening Neighborhoods and DESCI to apply for a Strengthening Neighborhoods grant.

For information about Strengthening Neighborhoods, visit the Strengthening Neighborhoods grant guidelines page.  

If you need assistance creating your TDF Grant Manager – Strengthening Neighborhoods and DESCI account, please contact help@denverfoundation.org or call 303.300.7190. 

Yes, at the beginning of the Strengthening Neighborhoods application, you will be asked if you want to complete the application in English or Spanish. For all other grant opportunities, you can use Google Translate by clicking the Google Translate “Select Language” box located in the upper left-hand corner of TDF Grant Manager or TDF Grant Manager – Strengthening Neighborhoods. 

Please reach out to the email found on the grant guidelines page for assistance.

Review committees vary by grant opportunity. For the Community Grants Program, the Advisory Committee for Community Impact, and staff from The Denver Foundation will review your grant application. Most other competitive grant opportunities have review committees that can include volunteers, content experts, and/or staff.

Generally, our grant review and due diligence process takes between 8-12 weeks after the application closes. The individual who submitted the application will receive the projected timelines in the “Application Submission Notification” email.

You can update your contact information in the following ways: 

1. In the application, if you are applying for a competitive grant opportunity. (Please note, changes will not be made to your account until the application closes.) 
2. By emailing help@denverfoundation.org, if you are not submitting an application at this time. 

Changes to a physical address should be verifiable on at least one of the following sites: IRS website, GuideStar / Candid, or the Colorado Secretary of State website.   

If an individual with a TDF Grant Manager account no longer works at your organization, please contact help@denverfoundation.org and we can deactivate their account.  

There is no account limit, so your organization can create as many accounts as needed. Accounts under the same organization will be automatically linked in the portal, so you will be able to view past requests. 

Click “Forgot your Password?” on the login page of TDF Grant Manager to receive an email that will allow you to reset your password. If you do not receive a password reset email, please contact help@denverfoundation.org.  

If you have technical questions about TDF Grant Manager, or if you have issues logging in, please contact our Help Desk at help@denverfoundation.org.  

We love hearing from you. We send surveys twice a year to organizations that have submitted applications to gather feedback on experiences with our applications and final reports. All survey responses are anonymous, and we use them to inform our work and improve our processes.