WHEN PEOPLE COME TOGETHER, THERE IS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE.

Dear Friends,

To us, Powering Community Together means we are tapping into your power to create positive change in our community. The theme of this year’s Community Benefit Report, The Many Shapes and Sizes of Giving, is a tribute to our partners whose important work is providing hope and changing lives.

For example, in September 2016 we empowered hundreds of local leaders to take community-driven grantmaking to a new level through our new Innovators Society program. At the Community Pitch Showdown competition, more than 200 community audience members allocated $500,000 in Foundation grant dollars among six mental wellness innovations.

We created KidsforColoradoGives.org, a kid-friendly companion site to ColoradoGives.org. The new Kids for ColoradoGives program is connecting the next generation of Colorado givers with local nonprofit organizations and helping young donors experience the joy of giving in a fun, safe environment.

We continued to help donors turn their passion into action through donor-advised funds. In 2016, 199 grants from donor-advised funds were given to nonprofits. Those grants helped support work in education, human services, the arts and other important areas of society. We also engaged in impact investing and discovered the power of a framework for early childhood mental wellness grantmaking.

We stretched ourselves in 2016 to be forward thinking in our approach. On that note, we are pleased to announce a new partnership with Red Rocks Community College. We are working together to create a Nonprofit Certificate program. The program’s goals are to prepare individuals wanting to enter the nonprofit sector, provide additional training to experienced nonprofit professionals and increase diversity throughout the sector. Enrollment has already begun and the first class will be offered in fall 2017.

This report is about our work in 2016 and our plans for the future, but it is really about you. We cannot power community without your generosity, passion and vision. We are proud to serve Jefferson County, the Denver metro area and beyond, and we are proud to serve you!

Sincerely,