Grants FAQ

For information on grant application deadlines, please visit our Funding Opportunities page.

We have been tracking this for several years, and there is no way to predict the number that will be received, nor is there a “low” or “high” deadline.

For more information or to schedule a conversation with a member of The Denver Foundation staff, please fill out our contact form, email grants@denverfoundation.org, or call us at 303-300-1790 and ask to speak to a member of the Impact Group about grant applications. The foundation’s business hours are 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday.

We are always happy to respond to your questions. However, be aware that we receive a large volume of calls in the two weeks prior to the grant deadlines, and may take more time to respond to requests at those busy times of the year.

Through our Community Grants, The Denver Foundation funds organizations that serve residents of the Metro Denver area — Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties. Field of Interest Funds, Donor-Advised Funds, and other Special funds are not limited to Metro Denver. 

We will consider requests from organizations based outside of Metro Denver as long as the program or project serves residents in one or several of the seven counties listed above.

If your organization provides services statewide or nationally, your proposal must address how the requested funding will be limited to the seven counties listed above.

Yes, The Denver Foundation prefers grant requests for general operating. In some cases, such as a national 501(c)(3) with a program in the Metro Denver area or a nonprofit that has an outreach program that fits our priorities, program requests may make more sense. If you’re not sure what to request, we strongly encourage you to give us a call!

No. We require that applications be complete and submitted to us by 5:00 p.m. of the deadline day. We will not consider a proposal that is missing one or more items incomplete, and it will be withdrawn from consideration. If your organization is missing one or more of the required attachments or is unable to provide them by the grant deadline, it would be better to wait until the next deadline and submit a complete proposal.

We require that proposals include all of the listed information and attachments. The only exception to this is if your organization is less than 12 months old and therefore does not have fiscal year-end financial statements. In this case, please be sure to include a page explaining this situation or the application will be deemed incomplete and automatically withdrawn from consideration.

Here are a few common mistakes that weaken a proposal:

• Not adequately answering the core values questions, these are a crucial piece of the review process
• Not including revenue in agency or program budgets
• Not completing a final report before applying
• Not describing the demographics of the population the organization serves or hopes to serve

The Foundation funds many faith-based organizations. However, we do not fund religious activities or programs that require religious activity as a condition of receiving services.

Organizations that received a grant from The Denver Foundation’s Community Grants Program are eligible to re-apply annually. For our other funding opportunities, specific instructions are included in the grant guidelines for each fund.

Organizations that have been declined may apply again one year later. We strongly encourage all organizations to review our guidelines and to contact us to talk about potential fit prior to submitting an application.

For more information or to schedule a conversation with a member of The Denver Foundation staff, please fill out our contact form, email grants@denverfoundation.org, or call us at 303.300.1790 and ask to speak to a member of the Impact Group about grant applications.

We invite collaboratives of all types to apply, including collaboratives made up of several nonprofit organizations, schools, governmental entities, resident groups and nonprofits, or nonprofit and business partnerships. The application lead must be 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.

Funded collaboratives are eligible to apply every 12 months. Nonprofit organizations can request support for their organizations and as a part of a collaborative in the same cycle.

For information about Strengthening Neighborhood or DESCI, click here.

Reviewing this FAQ page is a great first step! Next, we encourage you to visit the About TDF Grant Manager page on our website for an overview of the software. The next step is registering on the foundation’s online grant portal, TDF Grant Manager. 

For information about Strengthening Neighborhood or DESCI, press here.

You will need contact information for your organization, your organization’s Executive Director or CEO, and your Federal Tax ID number. If your organization does not have an Executive Director, you will be asked to provide a leadership contact for the organization during registration.

TDF funds that use an application process have a unique set of grant guidelines that are included in the summary of each fund. We recommend you read the guidelines for the fund before you begin the application. All funding opportunities are also listed on our website.

For all Community Grants Program applications, 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. If applicable, you will be required to upload a final report for your previous grant award.

For other funding opportunities, the attachment instructions will be included in the grant guidelines for the fund. You can view the grant guidelines in TDF Grants Manager or on the Funding Opportunities page on our website.

When you register on TDF Grants 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. If your organization conducts business using a trade name or 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.

We prefer that the applicant submit forms in PDF. The system accepts Word, Excel, and PDF files.

Character limits are listed with each question. The majority of narrative questions have a 2,500 character limit.

Yes, you can save progress on your application. We encourage you to regularly save your information to prevent losing work to a system timeout.

We accept proposals from organizations and groups working together as a “collaborative” to achieve greater impact and do things in the community that they could not do alone.

TDF Grants Manager offers different roles for users such as Applicant and Primary Contact. One option is to invite a “Collaborator” to a grant application. A Collaborator can add content to and/or edit a grant application before it is submitted. We strongly encourage you to view the tutorial videos about the grant management software, on our webpage About TDF Grants Manager, before starting your first application.

A committee made up of members of the Advisory Committee for Community Impact and Engaged Philanthropy team members will review your grant application

Your organization’s contact information and application history will be saved.

For more information or to schedule a conversation with a member of The Denver Foundation staff, please fill out our contact form, email grants@denverfoundation.org, or call us at 303.300.1790 and ask to speak to a member of the Impact Group about grant applications.

Because grants from Strengthening Neighborhoods (SN) do not require a 501(c)(3), they are hosted on a separate grant platform,  TDF Grant Manager – Strengthening Neighborhoods and DESCI. Both platforms use the same software, but TDF Grant Manager – Strengthening Neighborhoods and DESCI has a different registration process. We encourage you to watch the tutorial videos above before registration and application. To register to apply for a grant from Strengthening Neighborhoods or DESCI, please visit TDF Grant Manager – Strengthening Neighborhoods and DESCI.

A committee made up of members of the Advisory Committee for Community Impact and Engaged Philanthropy team members will review your grant application

The review committee will place emphasis on BIPOC/constituent led organizations, organizations that align with our priority areas, and basic financial health. 

The projected timelines for grant reviews and grant disbursements are included in the summary of the funding opportunity in TDF Grant Manager.