Colorado Health Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Colorado Health Foundation supports health equity for all Coloadoans. Some grantmaking also supports mental health, community development and affordable housing.

IP TAKE: The Colorado Health Foundation. a GUTC signatory, works to “create health equity for all Coloradans, especially those for whom health is furthest from reach due to avoidable, unfair or systemically caused differences.” A strong commitment to equity for Colorado’s underserved communities runs through all of its grantmaking. In addition to public health and advocacy, grantmaking for mental health, community development and affordable housing is on the rise here. The foundation recommends reaching out to a program officer to discuss eligibility and fit, but read through its current open funding opportunities prior to do doing so, as these may change focus from year to year. This is an approachable and responsive funder for Colorado organizations.

PROFILE: The Denver-based Colorado Health Foundation (CHF) maintains the broad mission of improving the health of Coloradoans so that every person living in the state can say, “We have all we need to live healthy lives.” The foundation, a GUTC signatory, makes grants to support “impactful work that helps Coloradoans live their healthiest lives by advancing opportunities to pursue good health and achieve health equity.” This funder “focuses on serving populations whose health needs are not being met due to income, age, race, ethnicity, geography or other barriers.”

This funder names four focus areas that relate its endeavors in grantmaking, community engagement, education and advocacy: Maintain Healthy Bodies, Nurture Healthy Minds, Strengthen Community Health and Champion Health Equity. Grantmaking, however, is conducted through the foundation’s Funding Opportunities and Rolling Funding programs, both of which name specific programs that may change from year to year. A smaller funding program makes grants for Affordable Housing.

Grants for Public Health and Access

Three of CHF’s four focus areas relate to public health and access:

  • Maintain Healthy Bodies aims to support Colorado initiatives to expand access to high-quality primary care services and to provide children with safe and fun opportunities to exercise every day.

  • Strengthen Community Health grants focus on community-level health equity by investing in local initiatives for health solutions, food security and affordable housing.

  • Champion Health Equity grantmaking supports individuals and organizations that advocate for local- and state-level health equity.

Health grants stem from both the Funding Opportunities and Rolling Funding vehicles. The Funding Opportunities program has offered the following grants:

  • Building a Pipeline of Primary Care Providers to Serve Diverse Communities grants support career development for high school graduates, early career health professionals and adults working in other professions who want to move into the healthcare field. Grants support health and medical education and training programs run by hospitals, schools and other community-based organizations. This program prioritizes organizations that engaged in active recruitment of participants, offer job placement and participant supports including childcare and transportation. Grants are awarded in amounts up to $600,000 for a period of three years.

  • Capital Infrastructure-Increasing Access to Care for Coloradoans of Color grants “provide shovel-ready capital funding to safety net practices in Colorado” with the overarching goal of building “the capacity of clinics to serve more Coloradans of color with high-quality, comprehensive team-based primary care centered on patients’ preferences, needs and values.” Eligible practices have patient bases that consist of at least 50% people of color. Grants are awarded in amounts of up to $400,000.

  • Supporting Holistic, Culturally Responsive and Youth-driven Physical Well-being grants support programs that aim to improve the physical well-being of young Coloradoans. Grantmaking focuses on high-impact programs that “elevate the assets of youth and their families, so they have the agency and self-determination to make decisions related to good physical well-being that pull from their cultural background and experiences.” Programs that serve girls, youth of color, disabled youth or young people identifying as LGBTQ are prioritized. Grants for capacity building and program expansion are available in amounts ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 over two years.

Additionally, through its Rolling Funding grantmaking vehicle, CHF makes Advocacy Rapid Response Funding grants, which support advocacy initiatives of three to nine months in duration that “ensure Coloradoans’ interests and priorities are front and center in shaping policy decisions that will have long-term impacts on creating health equity in Colorado.” Specific areas of interest include primary care, nutrition, exercise, mental health and housing. Grants range from $15,000 to $75,000, and applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

CHF’s public health grantees include Denver’s 9Health Services, Boulder County Public Health, the Denver Health and Hospitals Foundation, the Colorado Safety Net Collaborative, the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition and Cultivando, which advocates for health, wellness and childcare for LatinX immigrant communities.

Grants for Mental Health

CHF’s Nurture Healthy Minds focus area prioritizes efforts to enhance the social-emotional development of young children, the resiliency of youth and the recovery of adults experiencing substance abuse issues. Grantmaking for mental health is conducted mainly through CHF’s Funding Opportunities program, which names Supporting Coloradoans in Recovery Through Non-clinical Programs as a major initiative. Grants support organizations that “support individuals with mental health and/or substance use challenges in accessing culturally responsive non-clinical support services close to home that will make recovery possible.” Non-clinical refers to “services offered outside the traditional four walls of treatment can provide needed support that people simply cannot receive within a clinical setting.” Eligible organizations must work with “Coloradans who have less power, privilege and income, and prioritize Coloradans of color” in culturally and linguistically sensitive ways, and must be informed and/or led by the communities they serve.

CHF’s mental health grantees include the Aurora Community Connection Family Resource Center, the Center for Healting Trauma and Attachment, the Colorado Mental Wellness Network, Love Beyond Understanding and Voluntad, a Denver organization that works with victims of human trafficking.

Grants for Racial Justice and Equity

A strong commitment to racial equity runs through all of CHF’s grantmaking, with most programs prioritizing organizations that work toward improving heath equity and quality services for people of color. The foundation also runs two programs that focus specifically on advancing equity for People of Color and Indigenous groups throughout the state.

  • Advancing Advocacy and Justice Within Communities of Color is run through the Funding Opportunities program and supports advocacy for health equity for communities of color, including “movement-building strategies that make decision-makers accountable to communities” and “[e]fforts for racial and economic justice, which will ultimately support health equity for people of color across the state.” Grants tend to support grassroots groups involved in community organizing and activism, including leadership development and voter engagement initiatives. Grants range from $50,000 to $200,000 over a period of two to five years.

  • Building and Bridging Connections are funded through the Rolling Grants vehicle and support initiatives and programs that aim to “strengthen social capital and community-building efforts aimed at addressing health challenges and advancing health equity.” Grantmaking focuses on “[b]uilding community between people of color and/or groups working together within a community” and “[a]mplifying voices who have historically had less power and/or privilege.” Grants range from $25,000 to $90,000 for a period of one or two years.

Grantees working in the areas of racial justice and equity include the BIPOC Alliance of Larimer County, Engaged Latino Parents Advancing Student Outcomes, the Four Winds American Indian Council, the I Have a Dream Foundation of Boulder County and the Western Slope Native American Resource Center.

Grants for Housing Homelessness and Community Development

CHF invests in initiatives for Affordable Housing throughout the state of Colorado. Grantmaking priorities include support for community-led groups and initiatives, “projects that maintain or promote enduring housing stability” and housing initiatives that promote the foundation’s overlapping interests of racial and health equity and justice. In addition to grants, this program makes low-interest loans and coordinates “other flexible forms of capital” for housing investment.

Recipients of affordable housing grants and loans include Blue Room Housing, Mercy Housing Mountain Plains, Denver’s Neighborhood Development Collaborative and Amos Supporting Housing Association of Mesa.

Funding for community development also stems from the foundation’s Funding Opportunities program, which makes grants for Equitable Community-Designed Outdoor Spaces. Grants stemming fom this program focus specifically on progams that involve “deep community engagement bringing community members together to actively co-design spaces that reflect the community’s needs, history and culture, and encourages positive physical activity and psychological safety.” Grantmaking also prioritizes low income communities, rural areas and communities of color. Grants range form $25,000 to $50,000 and may support “personnel costs, meeting space needs, stipends for community members, administrative costs, meeting materials, translation and interpretation costs, among other needs.” Recipients of planning grants whose projects exhibit exceptional “strength and depth of the community engagement process” may be invited to apply for grants to support construction and/or improvement of outdoor spaces.

Grantees of this program include the Montezuma-Cortez School District, the Boulder Library Foundation and the Trust for Public Land of Colorado and Denver-Metro Community Impact.

Important Grant Details

CHF’s grants range from $25,000 to about $500,000, with most grants awarded in amounts prescribed by specific grantmaking programs.

  • Grant opportunties range from one to three years, and many grantees are invited to apply for subsequent grants.

  • With very few exceptions, grantmaking is limited to the state of Colorado.

  • Grants prioritize low-income, BIPOC, rural and underserved communities throughout the state.

  • For additional information on past grantmaking, see the foundation’s recent grants page.

The first step in applying for a grant is contacting and appropriate program officer to discuss grantmaking opportunities. Once eligibility and interest has been established, grantseekers should adhere to the foundation’s application guidelines as they submit proposals. For general inquiries, contact the grantmaking operations department via email.

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