Throughout 2020, Gates Family Foundation staff and board members have worked alongside the state’s nonprofit, foundation, government, and education leaders to leverage all of the Foundation’s resources in response to the evolving COVID crisis.
Today we are announcing 18 additional grants totaling $790,000 that we’ve made since May to address critical issues including affordable housing, remote learning, and public health, as well as the specific needs of Black, Indigenous and Latino Coloradans. See below for details on each grantee and project funded.
These latest grants, which were approved by the Gates board between May and August 2020, bring our overall total COVID-19 response to $2 million grant commitments, and an additional $8.99 million in impact investments to support small businesses (though two PRIs totaling $2 million were ultimately released and no capital deployed). Gates also leveraged its balance sheet to back an additional $7.5 million in PRIs from other foundations to ensure Colorado’s small business could access PPP loans.
You can read about all of our responsive grantmaking, impact investments, and funding partnerships to support Colorado communities’ response to the COVID pandemic here:
- Gates Commits $250,000 to Statewide COVID-19 Response Fund (March 26)
- Gates Announces Additional $610,000 in COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants (April 17)
- Gates Commits and Leverages $14.8 Million to Support Small Businesses Impacted by COVID-19 (May 13)
- Ten Trusted Community News Sources Awarded COVID-19 Informed Communities Grants (May 25)
- 15 Teams Selected to Receive Planning and Design Support to Apply for RISE Education Fund (Oct. 29)
| Grantee | Amount | Area Served | Purpose |
| Center for African American Health | $10,000 | Denver Metro | To assist with the health needs of the Black/African American community in northeast Denver and surrounding areas |
| Chinook Fund – Another World is Possible Fund | $20,000 | Statewide | To the Another World is Possible Fund, which provides COVID-19 pandemic response and longer-term support for Colorado organizations with a social justice mission |
| Colorado Education Initiative | $50,000 | Statewide | To partner with the Colorado Department of Education to survey all Colorado’s 178 school districts to define needs as a result of the pandemic, advance efforts to improve distance and summer learning options, and plan for the 2020-21 school year and beyond |
| Compañeros Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center | $10,000 | Rural | To provide support to immigrant and undocumented families and individuals living in the Four Corners area |
| COVIDCheck Colorado * | $100,000 | Statewide | To support the development of a rapid testing and contact tracing system for Colorado |
| The Denver Foundation – Black Resilience in Colorado Fund | $70,000 | Statewide | To address systemic racism and the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black communities across the seven-county Metro Denver region |
| Education Innovation Fund – Lyra Colorado | $125,000 | Statewide | To support creative responses to the disruptions caused in K-12 education by COVID |
| Enterprise Community Partners Inc. | $40,000 | Statewide | To implement the Emergency Action for Resident & Partner Sustainability program in Colorado, and to address affordable housing policy issues during this period of disruption |
| Impact Charitable – Left Behind Workers Fund | $20,000 | Statewide | To support the Left Behind Workers Fund, which provides direct support to workers and their families that are ineligible for other forms of public assistance |
| Keep It Colorado | $50,000 | Rural | To support Colorado land trusts as they endeavor to shift all of their conservation easement monitoring activity to remote approaches |
| Keystone Policy Center – Ute Mountain Ute | $40,000 | Rural | $30,000 to the Ute Mountain Ute tribe to support its COVID relief efforts, including food distribution, testing for tribal members, and distance learning support for youth and families; and $10,000 to the Keystone Center toward its work supporting the tribe |
| Mile High United Way – Governor’s Statewide COVID-19 Relief Fund | $25,000 | Statewide | To provide a second grant to the statewide relief fund, which between March and August helped raise over $22 million (including $250,000 from Gates) to make grants to over 700 organizations working in communities disproportionately impacted by the outbreak |
| NPX Charitable | $100,000 | Statewide | To help launch the Colorado Donor Impact Fund, a pay-for-success model that will invest heavily in three to five impact-oriented Colorado nonprofits poised to help vulnerable populations respond to medium and long-term economic impacts of the pandemic |
| Philanthropy Colorado – Rural Funders Learning Network | $10,000 | Rural | To support the Rural Funders Learning Network, which is playing a role in helping Colorado funders understand and address needs in the state’s rural communities |
| The Powerhouse Science Center | $7,500 | Rural | To support use of the Durango science center’s MakerLab to create PPE supplies for the region |
| RISE Colorado – RISE Together Relief Fund | $10,000 | Denver Metro | To address the COVID relief needs of immigrant and refugee families in Aurora |
| RISE Education Fund Planning and Design Fund | $52,500 | Rural | To provide smaller and rural districts assistance in developing competitive applications for the Governor’s $32.7 million Response, Innovation, and Student Equity (RISE) Education Fund |
| Rural Theater Relief Fund | $50,000 | Statewide | Toward a multi-funder pool of capital to help sustain rural theaters during COVID closures, be matched by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade |
* In addition to this grant, Gates made a $1 million short-term, zero-interest commitment to Gary Community Investment to support the launch of the COVIDCheck Colorado rapid testing and tracing system. The PRI commitment was ultimately released, and no capital deployed.
A total of $1,110,956 committed to the 
In 2019, the Community Development program committed $932,500 in strategic grants to 13 organizations and $465,000 in responsive capital grants to 12 organizations. New impact investments supporting vibrant communities in 2019 included a $500,000 MRI to 
Our Focus Landscapes initiative, a key element of our Natural Resources program, underwent a comprehensive review, revision, and re-launch in 2019. This initiative was launched in 2011 to help Colorado achieve landscape-scale conservation through the protection of private lands in specific geographies. A great deal of progress was made in North Park, southeast Colorado, and the San Luis Valley, resulting in more than 200,000 acres of farm and ranch lands conserved, along with their associated ecological values. The strategic review process was done in close partnership with the land trust organizations representing those geographies, providing lessons-learned and an exploration of emerging opportunities. The revised Focus Landscapes initiative will first focus on two geographies: