Gary Community Ventures Grant

_NOTE: Once a year we issue a Request for Grant Proposals that reflect specific strategies for impact within our outcome areas. We also welcome the opportunity to connect with organizations engaged in aligned work at any time. Please feel free to reach out to the Directors of School Readiness, Youth Success, and Family Economic Mobility._

What We Fund

Grant-making is one of the most powerful tools we use to catalyze opportunity for Colorado kids and families. All of our philanthropic grants support partners who focus on improving outcomes aligned with our strategies.

School Readiness

Across our School Readiness initiatives, we prioritize organizations that share our values and advance the promise and potential of kids and families from low-income backgrounds and communities facing systemic barriers to opportunity. We specifically partner with values-aligned organizations focused on children and families in Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, and Jefferson counties.

• Expanding Quality Early Learning
  • Strategic Focus Areas
  • Quality Preschool:
  • We aim to ensure that programming achieves strong learning outcomes among preschoolers and that the system serves families well in a simple and unified early childhood education system.
  • Quality Childcare:
• Increasing Family Supports
  • Strategic Focus Areas
  • Delivering Healthy Births:
  • Enhancing Early Skills:
  • Expanding Parent Capacity:

Youth Success

Across our Youth Success initiatives we prioritize organizations that share our values and advance the promise and potential of kids and families from low-income backgrounds and communities facing systemic barriers to opportunity.. We specifically partner with values aligned-organizations focused on children and families in Denver, Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties.

• Increasing Academic Skills
  • We look for partners and innovations in the areas of math and literacy, with a focus on those students who have historically been least well-served by our schools.
• Advancing Youth Wellbeing
  • Our work prioritizes building young people’s sense of purpose, fostering trusted relationships with peers and adults, and ensuring access to early screening and effective interventions.
• Increasing Postsecondary Success
  • Our systems must equip more students with the skills and postsecondary plans that lead to family-sustaining careers.
  • We partner with organizations advancing outcomes in both of these areas.

Family Economic Mobility

Across our Family Economic Mobility initiatives we prioritize organizations that share our equity values and advance the promise and potential of kids and families from low-income backgrounds and BIPOC communities. We specifically partner with values aligned organizations focused on children and families in Denver, Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties.

• Growing Income
  • Strategic Focus Areas
  • Upskilling:
  • We partner with higher education institutions, organizations and employers to expand the ecosystem of higher education pathways and job training programs.
  • Public Benefits:
• Cutting Expenses
  • Strategic Focus Areas
  • Housing:
  • Debt:
• Building Wealth
  • Home Ownership
  • Business & Employee Ownership
  • Renter & Community Ownership
  • Individual Savings & Assets

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

• All of our philanthropic grants support partners who:
  • Aim to advance the promise and potential of kids and families who have traditionally not had access to opportunity in Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, and/or Jefferson counties.
  • Seek catalytic dollars that drive toward breakthrough solutions, scale, and/or systems change.

Ineligibility

• The work below falls outside of our focus areas, where other philanthropic organizations may be better positioned to partner.
  • Funding for capital projects to build or renovate a child care facility
  • Operations costs or supplies for a child care center or preschool Scholarships for families to attend child care
• The work below falls outside of our focus areas, where other philanthropic organizations may be better positioned to lead.
  • Areas outside our funding strategies (including areas typically funded by public dollars such as curricula, teacher professional learning, etc.)
  • General ongoing operating costs
  • Acute clinical services
  • Scholarships
  • Capital construction
• The work below falls outside of our focus areas, where other philanthropic organizations may be better positioned to lead.
  • Capital Campaigns
  • Land acquisition
  • Land development
  • Direct services/ emergency response