CSHF: Fostering Collaboration Grant Opportunity

CSHF: Fostering Collaboration Grant Opportunity

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Colorado Springs Health Foundation
Last Updated: November 05, 2025

Summary

The CSHF: Fostering Collaboration Grant Opportunity encourages innovative partnerships among diverse organizations to tackle complex community health challenges in El Paso and Teller Counties, Colorado. This grant prioritizes collaborative efforts that align with the Foundation's focus areas, including healthcare access and trauma prevention. Applicants must demonstrate commitment to evidence-based practices and transformative potential. Engaging with CSHF staff prior to application is essential for consideration.

Overview

NOTE: If you are interested in applying for funding, you must speak with Colorado Springs Health Foundation staff about your proposal before applying. If you do not have this conversation first, your application will not be considered. Please sign up for a date/time that works for you. Opportunity Description CSHF defines collaboration as: Multiple organizations, perspectives and disciplines formed and working together in pursuit of a common goal that could not be achieved individually. Collaboration is bigger than partnerships; it is more than a memorandum of understanding. Collaboration is best used to address complex problems through systems change. It is difficult, resource-intensive, and time-consuming. As such, it is an approach that should be pursued sparingly and thoughtfully, only when the challenge warrants this level of investment. Principles of collective impact, when applied, have been shown to improve a collaboration’s ability to achieve real and measurable progress. Collaboration applicants with the following attributes are considered more competitive: The purpose behind the collaboration aligns tightly with one of CSHF’s funding focus areasThe collaboration addresses a key community health challenge that requires the intentional and combined efforts of diverse organizations, perspectives and disciplines for its resolution The collaboration applies principles of the collective impact model, including backbone functions. See “Understanding the Value of Backbone Organizations in Collective Impact” by Turner et al, Stanford Social Innovation Review, July 2012 for more insight on backbone functions Participating organizations contribute resources (in-kind or cash) to the effort The work involves evidence-based practices, whenever possible The collaboration has transformative potential Funding Focus Areas Colorado Springs Health Foundation has identified six funding focus areas. These areas align with the Foundation’s mission, community need, community and stakeholder input, and the population health framework described above. Colorado Springs Health Foundation prioritizes high-need and underresourced populations. Healthcare accessSuicide prevention Trauma prevention or healing Food Physical activity Transitional or affordable housing Healthcare access includes care for physical, mental, oral and/or substance use disorder-related concerns, and initiatives to address the healthcare workforce shortage.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Applicant organizations must be one of the following:Tax-exempt (501(c)3)Operating under the fiscal agency of a tax-exempt organizationTax-supported like a school or local/state governmentApplicant organizations must serve either El Paso and/or Teller Counties, Colorado.Grant requests must align with Colorado Springs Health Foundation’s mission and its funding focus areas.Grant size (amount approved) varies significantly.Colorado Springs Health Foundation prefers not to provide sole, majority and/or continuous funding for a request.An organization with a current, open general operating, program/project or capital grant award may submit another general operating, program/project or capital grant request only after it has spent down its current general operating, program/project or capital grant, submitted its final grant report and the report has been approved. An organization may be awarded no more than one general operating, program/project or capital grant request per calendar year assuming it has no current general operating, program/project or capital grant open.

Ineligibility

Colorado Springs Health Foundation does not support:For-profit organizationsIndividualsRequests for annual appeals, membership drives, fundraising events, political candidates or lobbying effortsRequests from re-granting organizations for their own grantmaking activitiesSupport for direct services (e.g. hiring staff), organization or program expansion or capital projects