Community Grants Program (The Denver Foundation) - Strengthening Neighborhoods

Community Grants Program (The Denver Foundation) - Strengthening Neighborhoods is sponsored by The Denver Foundation. This program supports nonprofits that serve the seven-county Metro Denver area and align with core values of community and constituent leadership & racial equity, with 'Capacity Building' listed as a funding area.

Strengthening Neighborhoods - The Denver Foundation Strengthening Neighborhoods A grantmaking program for community-led projects Strengthening Neighborhoods gives grants to support campaigns and community-led projects by grassroots groups and local nonprofits across Metro Denver. Built on the belief that neighbors know best what their neighborhoods need, our program invests in community-led ideas and leadership.

It’s funded by generous donors through donor-advised funds and direct gifts to its own endowment. What makes Strengthening Neighborhoods unique? Strengthening Neighborhoods 25th anniversary celebration event Philanthropy often outlines what it wants to fund and seeks nonprofits that can do that work.

Strengthening Neighborhoods takes a different approach. Residents have the best insight into how to improve their communities and how to leverage their many strengths, including their people, institutions, and public resources. Identifying the most pressing issues and what to fund comes from the community itself, and The Denver Foundation funds those ideas through the Strengthening Neighborhoods program.

What does Strengthening Neighborhoods support?

Since its inception, the Strengthening Neighborhoods program has funded projects led by local community members, including curbside recycling campaigns, worker-owned cooperatives like Community Language Coop , and campaigns to raise awareness of affordable housing solutions like resident-owned communities, where homeowners of mobile or manufactured homes form a nonprofit cooperative that owns and manages the land.

How can you support Strengthening Neighborhoods? Your gifts can make an immediate impact. Donors can support the Strengthening Neighborhoods Program through gifts from their donor-advised funds or a credit card gift right now .

A gift to the Strengthening Neighborhoods permanent endowment means your gift will support your community, forever. From pilot program to lasting support We created the Strengthening Neighborhoods grant program in 1996. After extensive feedback from local community members, the program sought to support the unique identity of each Denver neighborhood, which meant getting to know those folks and supporting their work on a personal level.

“Not only did the Strengthening Neighborhoods program help The Denver Foundation connect directly with community members, it connected Denver residents with each other across neighborhood lines,” Javier Alberto Soto, President & CEO.

In 2025, to celebrate The Denver Foundation’s 100th anniversary, we created the Strengthening Neighborhoods Endowment Fund to ensure long-term, consistent support for community-led projects and resident leadership across Metro Denver—today and for future generations.

“The Denver Foundation and Strengthening Neighborhoods played a huge role in influencing the types of things other philanthropic partners funded over the years,” Mike Kromrey, executive director of Together Colorado. Shifting philanthropy through trust and community leadership Cultivando was the first Strengthening Neighborhood’s grantee. At the time, it was a newly formed community group in Commerce City.

Instead of funding services, their first grant supported a listening project to map their community strengths. Cultivando’s success attracted additional funders, establishing this community-led model as a trusted approach to driving change throughout Colorado. Denver’s Montbello Community Strengthening Neighborhoods gave Montbello Organizing Committee (MOC) its first grant of $5,000 in 2014.

Investments through the Strengthening Neighborhoods Program and Community Grants Program, enabled MOC to leverage additional funding from many other foundations and sources, growing into an essential hub for Montbello residents. A Decent Home documentary The film is the first documentary made about mobile home parks, featuring the story of a three-year fight to save the Denver Meadows Mobile Home Park in Aurora.

Since 2015, we have worked in partnership with 9to5 Colorado, an organization that championed the Denver Meadows community through their fight for housing security. information@denverfoundation. org EIN: 84-6048381 | 501(c)(3) If you are human, leave this field blank.