News: Education

Whitney Johnson, Senior Program Officer
Amanda Hill, Program Officer

With impacts to Colorado’s rivers and working and natural lands continuing to mount in the face of climate change, we are acutely aware of both the sense of urgency and the scale that we have to operate. Colorado State University recently released its third edition report on climate change in Colorado, which confirms what we see on our lands and in our rivers; our climate has become much warmer and further warming is expected. These warming trends are impacting Colorado’s snowpack, stream flows, soil moisture, natural and working lands, and the places we live, recreate, and protect.

Supporting Coloradans who are most impacted by climate change and least involved in decision-making drove our Natural Resources team to look for opportunities and build new relationships. Woven throughout each of the following Natural Resources focus areas, our investments centered equity and leadership development, policy support, and capacity:

The Natural Resources team used every tool in the Foundation’s toolbox to support our partners across these three priority areas. To help catalyze new ideas and sustain promising efforts, we leveraged both initiated and capital grant dollars, program-related investment dollars, the power of convening, and a commitment to long-term funding through our Focus Landscapes initiative.

In 2023, the Natural Resources program awarded:

• $30,0000 in one responsive capital grant to Eagle Valley Land Trust for its conservation center
• A $250,000 program-related investment (PRI) commitment to the National Forest Foundation for its wetland mitigation efforts
• A total of $1,335,000 to support land conservation and stewardship in Southeast Colorado and the San Luis Valley, as part of our Focus Landscapes initiative
• A total of $700,000 over two years to further Gates leadership in advancing the mass timber industry
• An additional total of $533,000 in strategic grants to 13 organizations, some which are highlighted below

Balanced Water Management: Climate change continues to severely impact Colorado’s water systems, and researchers predict that rivers may shrink by as much as 30 percent by 2050. In 2023, Gates Family Foundation supported the Lincoln Institute’s Water & Tribes Initiative, which was established in 2017 to serve as connective tissue for Tribal Nations to increase their own capacity and collaboration in developing water resource and policy decisions for the Colorado River Basin. The Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association represents 73 acequias in the San Luis Valley; these community-operated water management systems are a longstanding model of water sharing for over 300 families throughout the Valley.

Forest Health and Watershed Restoration: Forest health and watershed health are closely linked, with a majority of Colorado’s water supply coming from forested watersheds. Due to drought, wildfires, overly-dense stands, and disease Colorado’s forests actually emit more carbon than is stored. In 2023, Gates Family Foundation continued our collaborative funding approach with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Great Outdoors Colorado, and other state, federal, and private partners to support the RESTORE Colorado Program. This initiative advances land restoration efforts on river corridors, riparian areas, wetlands and forestland, and prioritizes cross-jurisdictional projects at scale.

With help from a number of partners and industry leaders, in 2023 Gates Family Foundation also assembled a broad coalition of public and private institutions to form the Colorado Mass Timber Coalition (CMTC). CMTC’s mission is to accelerate the use of mass timber products and technology in the next generation of buildings in Colorado, and to create a future where mass timber products can be made here using timber harvested locally, including timber resulting from efforts to improve forest and watershed health. The Coalition is anchored at the National Forest Foundation.

Landscape Conservation and Land Trust Capacity Building: Landscape-scale conservation persists as a priority for the Foundation. In 2023 we supported a major land conservation project in the San Luis Valley in collaboration with Western Rivers Conservancy and continued our support of Keep It Colorado’s programming and problem-solving projects. We have also sustained our commitment to focused landscapes in Southeast Colorado and the San Luis Valley. 2023 marked our ninth year of support to partner organizations Palmer Land Conservancy and the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust, two community-based organizations implementing and developing conservation tools and thoughtful approaches to ensure land protection and water management and provide long-term conservation solutions to these regions. A total of $1,335,000 of funding was distributed in 2023 to support work in Southeast Colorado and the San Luis Valley through the focus landscapes program.

We continue to be inspired by our partners and the work they’re doing to conserve our unique landscapes and waterways and support the communities that live and access these places. In 2024, Gates remains committed to tackling challenges and finding opportunities through collaboration, listening, and championing ideas both big and small.

2023 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: NATURAL RESOURCES

Whitney Johnson, Senior Program Officer
Amanda Hill, Program Officer

In 2022, the Natural Resources team enthusiastically implemented our first year of the Foundation’s 2022-2027 strategic plan. Lessons learned during its development have since serve to guide our team on the most impactful and intentional use of time and resources in the coming years — in both grantmaking and in strategic conversations and convenings. We know that tactical partnership is valued by our communities, so we are seeking ways to anticipate needs and be proactive in catalyzing these conversations and efforts.

New federal funding will provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to move the needle for communities and partners working in many of the Foundation’s priority areas. The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes billions of dollars for western water infrastructure projects and for climate resilience strategies such as restoring wetland and riparian areas. In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act promises even more for investing in domestic energy production while promoting clean energy.

All of these opportunities are closely aligned with goals of the Natural Resources program:

Colorado communities and economies require dependable and clean water supplies, healthy forests and watersheds, and lands that support agricultural production, wildlife habitat, and a way for people in every corner of the state to access the benefits of being outdoors. We have had the opportunity to sustain commitments on some of these fronts and to foster new growth in others. 

In 2022, the Natural Resources program awarded:  

$2,526,500 in strategic grants to 18 organizations

$130,0000 in responsive capital grants to three organizations

The Foundation also made a $200,000 MRI commitment to the Future of Water Fund

Balanced Water Management: The aridification of the West and water shortages across the region highlight the urgency of new and collaborative cross-sector solutions.

Staff participated in meetings hosted by the Water Foundation’s Water Table throughout the year. This learning opportunity provides insights both wide and deep into the serious challenges we face across the West in supporting natural habitats, agricultural resources and communities, recreational use, and municipalities and industry with the water quality and quantities required for each use. That learning supported or encouraged our commitments to funding nature-based solutions with Quantified Ventures as a solution in climate change adaptation and building resilience in landscapes and communities and partnering with the Colorado Water Trust to pioneer the tools and research needed to address river flows to benefit the environment and communities. Investments in the San Luis Valley continue to grow in light of water export threats, climate change, and groundwater depletion. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, American Rivers, the Salazar Center, and Colorado Open Lands are all working to advance solutions in this part of the state.

Forest Health and Watershed Restoration: Forest health and watershed health are closely linked, with a majority of Colorado’s water supply coming from forested watersheds.

In 2022 we continued our collaborative funding approach with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Great Outdoors Colorado, and other state, federal, and private partners to support the RESTORE Colorado Program. This initiative advances land restoration efforts on river corridors, riparian areas and wetlands and forestland projects and prioritizes cross-jurisdictional projects at scale. Peaks to People is working to proactively treat fire risk in key watersheds in Northern Colorado, proving forest stewardship is an indispensable approach in achieving water security. 

Landscape Conservation and Land Trust Capacity Building: We have sustained our commitment to our focused landscapes in Southeast Colorado and the San Luis Valley. Partner organizations Palmer Land Conservancy and the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust are collaborating with partners on innovative conservation tools and thoughtful approaches to ensure that the work done is resilient, community-based, and provides long-term solutions. A total of $1,185,000 of funding was distributed in 2022 in support of work in southeast Colorado and the San Luis Valley.

Multi-year commitments to land trust organizations Keep It Colorado and Montezuma Land Conservancy will sustain and grow the land trust community’s ability to advance policy in accordance with land conservation needs and opportunities while highlighting the history of land conservation and the challenges of creating a future that is equitable and invites all communities to engage with land and conservation in Colorado.  

Our strategic plan calls for thoughtful advancement on climate and diversity, equity, and inclusion work across all our programs. These two pillars, which are inextricably intertwined, guide us both internally and externally to encourage critical thinking, to identify new voices and perspectives, and to be accessible to all communities working toward natural resources solutions in our state. We take seriously the opportunity to better elevate underrepresented voices and advance community-driven solutions to these challenges. 

2022 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: NATURAL RESOURCES

Mary Seawell, Senior Vice President
Ana Soler, Senior Program Officer

The K-12 education program continues to be driven by the vision that all children in Colorado have access to educational opportunities that support their long-term success. The Foundation’s education strategies have historically been rooted in an effort to address inequities. The 2022 strategies retained that focus and added 1) being responsive to the shifting conditions caused by the pandemic and 2) the impact of climate change.

In 2022, the education team at Gates focused on the launch of the strategic plan that refined some strategies and expanded others. Based on learning from the last five years of grantmaking and community conversations, the Foundation believes supporting innovation within learning environments, supporting the conditions that support innovation, and supporting school system change is the best lever to meaningfully impact educational inequity in Colorado.

In 2022, Gates’ education program paid out $2,739,000 in strategic grants and $485,000 in responsive capital grants.

The Foundation supports the staff to function in roles beyond grantmaking and this includes convening stakeholders and funding partners for collective action. In 2022, the education team was involved in the following activities:

In response to the need for more equity in the philanthropic field for funding that meets community needs and amplifies youth voices in philanthropy, Ana provided ongoing strategic support to YouthRoots for the GIV Fellowship, a philanthropic and nonprofit fellowship program.

The education team facilitated a process to open lines of communication and cooperation and that resulted in more equitable access to education for families in the Roaring Fork area. To share lessons learned, in 2022 the Foundation released a case study, We are One Community, and 50 people attended a webinar to discuss the process and the outcomes with local leaders.

In the realm of climate change, Gates’ close partner and grantee Lyra Colorado continued to help partners in rural communities across the state to develop and expand initiatives that address climate change. Climatarium helps school districts, higher education institutions, and nonprofit partners identify existing and new resources for developing local and regional academic, career, and student leadership pathways for students.

2022 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: EDUCATION

Melissa Milios Davis, Vice President, Informed Communities

Gates Family Foundation has a long history of viewing local news and information as vital civic infrastructure, connected to all of our issue areas. Since 1967, we’ve provided program and project support for public media. Since 2010 we’ve supported new nonprofit news startups, new beats, watchdog journalism and documentary projects. And in 2019, we made a catalytic, three-year commitment to launch the Colorado Media Project as a special initiative — thanks to funding carved out from Gates’ education, natural resources, community development and capital grantmaking programs.

But not until 2022 did Gates create a designated pot of funds to support a fourth strategic focus area: Informed Communities. Extensive landscape research, surveys, and partner conversations have guided our new five-year strategic plan, including the Foundation’s newest grantmaking program. Through this work, we aim to help ensure that all Coloradans can access, trust, and engage with reliable local news and information they need to participate in a healthy democracy and make well-informed decisions about issues important to the future of our state.

To support informed communities, we focus our attention and resources on three strategies:

In 2022, Gates’ Informed Communities program committed a total of $1,342,956 to nine grantees, including:

A total of $1,110,956 committed to the Colorado Media Project over the next three years, of which $410,956 was released in 2022 and combined with funds from five other Colorado and national foundations to support:

— The second round of CMP’s Advancing Equity in Local News grant program, which provided 27 new grants totaling $352,640 to support efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in Colorado newsrooms; build trust between Colorado newsrooms and the diverse communities they serve; and/or support more diverse and inclusive civic news leadership, entrepreneurship, ownership and narratives,

— The fifth year of CMP’s #newsCOneeds initiative that provided 32 Colorado newsrooms with $5,000 in matching funds plus technical support to plan and execute their year-end giving campaigns — which collectively raised more than $832,700 in total from local individuals,

— Seeding and launch of CMP’s Community News and Innovation Fund, which supports ecosystem builders including the Colorado Press Association, the Colorado News Collaborative, and the Public News Company as they help local newsrooms explore and pilot innovative solutions to business, digital and revenue challenges that they are facing right now, in communities across the state, and

— External evaluation of CMP’s grantmaking and impact.

A two-year, $112,000 commitment to the National Trust for Local News, to add operational capacity to the Colorado News Conservancy and Colorado Community Media, in support of a $750,000 impact investment from Gates awarded in 2021

A $50,000 grant to The Colorado Sun, to help drive reader revenue through marketing and membership, in support of an eight-year, $1.5 million impact investment from Gates awarded in 2020

Five other grants to advance various initiatives including a pilot project with the League of Women Voters in Larimer County, a summer photojournalism camp for rural teens on the Western Slope, and a two-year commitment to the Denver Democracy Summit.

As we look to the future, the Foundation is actively seeking ways to advance equity in local news, promote diverse ownership and voices in local news, increase collaboration and efficiencies in the local news ecosystem, and support the development of new revenue streams for local newsrooms. Please reach out to me with your ideas and insights!

2022 GRANTS AWARDED: INFORMED COMMUNITIES

Laia Mitchell, Senior Program Officer, Community Development

For Colorado communities, 2022 was a time of both economic uncertainty and unprecedented federal investment, creating big challenges and opportunities for Colorado communities. Rising inflation and supply chain pains were felt in our homes and in staff rooms. Rising interest rates have added complexity for our nonprofit and community partners looking to find a permanent location or build affordable housing and community assets. At the same time, a huge influx of federal funds is bringing incredible opportunities for state and local governments. The passage of Proposition 123 in 2022 established a statewide affordable housing fund, which promises to increase access to housing supply at a time when our state desperately needs new affordable homes.

At the Foundation, Community Development staff worked to apply the new strategic plan, investing in solutions that advance Economic Mobility and create access to Equitable Community Assets in Colorado. Across the Foundation, staff worked to address structural inequity and invest in climate solutions.

In 2022, the Gates Community Development program committed $1,980,000 in strategic grants to 24 organizations and $743,000 in responsive capital grants to 15 organizations. There were two new community development related Program Related Investments in 2022 totaling $1.55 million: Colorado Housing Accelerator Initiative Fund ($1 million), and Elevation Community Land Trust for the Chestnut Lofts project ($550,000). There were also two Mission Related Investment commitments: to the Greater Colorado Venture Fund II and the Avesta Colorado Fund.

With a new strategic focus on affordable and accessible housing in Colorado, the Foundation made five grants and one PRI and dedicated additional staff time to participating in the sector. Housing grantees in 2022 included 9to5 Colorado to support housing justice efforts for mobile home communities, planning efforts to increase workforce housing in La Junta Colorado, pre-development support for an emerging community land trust — Home Trust of Ouray County — and support for developments led by Urban Land Conservancy and the ArtSpace Space to Create initiative.

This year, the Gates Community Development program supported economic mobility with expanded investment in workforce development, with grant investments in policy through the Colorado Equitable Economic Mobility Initiative, and investment in practice through ActivateWork. Gates made two notable investments in community wealth building strategies by supporting the Center for Community Wealth Building for collaborative work on access and ownership of commercial property and the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center for its work in rural communities. The Foundation also continued its support of entrepreneurship strategies with 2022 grants to the Latino Leadership Institute’s Latino Entrepreneur Access Program, AYA Foundation and the Black Business Initiative, and First Southwest Community Fund for its work supporting rural entrepreneurs in the San Luis Valley and beyond.

Staff at Gates have observed the need for earlier support to nonprofits and community-serving development efforts as a strategy to increase equitable community assets. In today’s fast-paced and challenging real estate and construction markets, support for planning and design of community-serving assets can make a significant difference in what projects actually get built. In conjunction with the Capital grants program, Gates provided pre-development support to community-driven and BIPOC-led development efforts in 2022, including a GES Coalition-driven site in Globeville, Commún in Loretto Heights, Elevate Athletics in northeast Denver, and Cultivando in Adams County. As we move forward in 2023, we continue to ask the question: Who owns the city? How do we shift ownership of real estate to community-led and community-service projects?

The Foundation also advanced climate-focused work in Community Development with a three-year commitment to support advocacy and policy efforts to shift the transportation sector in Colorado; a Black-led greening initiative in the historic Five Points neighborhood, and two rural agricultural grants.

As we look to 2023 and beyond, the Foundation continues to listen, learn, and look for ways to advance economic mobility, promote community wealth building strategies, increase housing access and affordability, and support the development of community-serving assets. Please reach out with your ideas and insights! You can submit ideas here, or contact me directly here.

2022 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Laia Mitchell, Senior Program Officer, Community Development

The year 2021 was both a time of reflection, with a robust strategic planning process, and a year of action, as Gates staff worked to respond to the evolving impacts of the COVID pandemic, income inequality, and a growing affordable housing crisis in Colorado. Increasing drought, wildfires, and a transitioning energy economy are also bringing uncertainty to Colorado communities.

Over the course of the year, the Foundation developed a new five-year strategic plan. Staff conducted research and outreach to inform our strategic direction, and ultimately established two focus areas for advancing equitable community development:

The Foundation is also integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion practices into its operations and decision making to ensure that community development funding advances a more equitable and inclusive Colorado.

In 2021, the Gates Community Development program committed $530,000 in strategic grants to 13 organizations and $370,000 in responsive capital grants to eight organizations. There were five community development impact investments in 2021 totaling $2.15 million: IndieDwell ($250,000), Montbello Organizing Committee FreshLo Hub ($200,000), Telluride Foundation-Rural Homes for Sale for Locals ($200,000), First Southwest Community Fund ($500,000), Dearfield Fund for Black Wealth ($1,000,000)

Geographically, the Foundation looks for opportunities to invest in both rural and urban communities, including connection between rural and urban areas, such as support for the Rocky Mountain High Plains Food Chain Collaborative, which works with agricultural producers to promote regenerative practices, social justice, and climate change mitigation. Additional agriculture and food systems grants included statewide policy and procurement work by Nourish Colorado and a planning grant for a future grocery store and food hub under development by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.

In Metro Denver, Gates supported economic opportunity in the East Colfax neighborhood and in the surrounding communities of east Denver and west Aurora through support of Mile High Connects, the ACT 303 Coalition (which included Enterprise Community Partners, Mi Casa Resource Center, The Fax Partnership, and others). An investment in the former Johnson & Wales Campus by Urban Land Conservancy also included support to BuCu West and the Kitchen Network as it expands its commissary kitchen services to east Denver. A commitment to Montbello Organizing Committee is helping support the community-driven FreshLo Hub development providing access to healthy food and affordable housing in the Montbello neighborhood of northeast Denver.

In southwest Denver, the Foundation supported community-serving projects through capital and programmatic grants. Grantees included El Laboratorio and the River Sisters Partnership (working to advance parks in the region that lift up the importance of Colorado’s rivers and its Latino, Hispanic, and Chicano heritage, as well as the work of Lifespan Local to create a community-serving campus in Westwood.

Housing is becoming a greater focus for the Foundation as the strain to find affordable housing worsens across the state. Relevant grants in 2021 included Enterprise Community Partner’s statewide policy and implementation work, and Radian’s work to advance accessory dwelling units as a strategy to increase housing in Denver. In addition, an investment in the Rural Homes for Sale for Locals effort will support housing development underway for the communities of Nucla, Norwood, Ridgway, and Ouray in southwest Colorado.

As we look to the future, the Foundation is actively seeking ways to advance economic mobility, promote community wealth building strategies, increase housing access and affordability, and support the development of other community-serving assets. Please reach out with your ideas and insights!

2021 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Whitney Johnson, Senior Program Officer

During the past year, the Natural Resources team had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time and energy reflecting on what was learned over the last five years implementing the Foundation’s 2016-21 strategic plan and looking forward to the next five years. In order to develop and shape a new strategic plan that reflects the realities of the moment and encompasses a wider array of views, staff conducted research, sought input from grantees, community leaders, and thought partners, and reflected on the lessons learned in pursuing the objectives and strategies identified in the previous plan.

Part of what we heard is that our ability to act as a strategic partner — coupling financial support with intellectual engagement and roll-up-the-sleeves determination — has resulted in catalytic efforts and built trust among an increasingly diverse set of allies. Progress against the ambitious objectives commonly held for Colorado’s natural resources requires a hunger for seeding and supporting innovation, an abiding passion for cooperative solutions, and a redoubled commitment to thoughtful leadership on behalf of future generations. Our team understands that in order to find solutions or make progress on complex issues, this work must be inclusive, innovative, and opportunistic.

In 2021 and beyond, relevance and results at scale demand the type of entrepreneurial and investment-based approaches that are a hallmark of Gates’ initiated programs, and climate change in particular presents an opportunity to lead. Our communities and economies depend upon a reliable snowpack and water supplies, healthy forests and watersheds, and the conservation of lands that protect and sustain wildlife, habitat, food production, and rural communities. After a year of planning, the Natural Resources program is committed to advancing ideas and solutions focused on: Balanced Water Management, Forest Health and Watershed Restoration, and Landscape Conservation. In addition, we are increasing our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sector.

The Natural Resources annual report letter in 2020 noted that year as the worst year for Colorado wildfires on record. At the time that letter was written, the Marshall Fire had yet to sweep through suburban neighborhoods in Boulder County. This fire quickly became the most destructive wildfire in Colorado’s history, destroying more than 1,000 homes and displacing more than 30,000 people. As increasing populations lead to an expanded wildland-urban interface and climate change continues to exacerbate the challenges associated with unhealthy forests, the Natural Resources’ Forest Health program is investing in large-scale collaborative efforts like the Rocky Mountain Restoration Initiative as well as tools and technology like Salo Sciences to address the ”new normal” of destructive wildfires in the West.

As river flows decrease and demand increases, Gates continues to deepen its commitment to solutions that advance conservation efforts, and management policies and practices that promote Balanced Water Management. A grant to the Sonoran Institute is helping advance key Colorado Water Plan implementation priorities while supporting community-based planning and prioritization.

In the face of a rapidly changing climate and both contracting and exploding communities in rural Colorado, the need for scaled Landscape Conservation is increasingly urgent. Acknowledging the significant gap that remains in the financial resources needed to achieve landscape-scale conservation solutions, Gates invested in the Trust for Public Land and its work in advancing conservation finance measures to address this gap and generate resources dedicated to addressing significant, long-term conservation goals.

Underlying the work of Gates Family Foundation and the Natural Resources program is a recognition that those most impacted by climate change are communities least represented in many of the organizations the Natural Resources program has supported. The strategic planning process provided an opportunity for intentional outreach, listening, and dialog regarding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. That work has just begun. A grant to the Next 100 Colorado is a strategic step in supporting policies, leadership development, and community-based efforts that center equity in the conservation work of Colorado.

We welcome ongoing dialog and collaboration as the Gates Family Foundation continues to work alongside its partners to foster an inclusive and resilient Colorado.

2021 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: NATURAL RESOURCES

Mary Seawell, Senior Vice President
Ana Soler, Senior Program Officer

In 2021, Gates Family Foundation embarked on a foundation-wide strategic planning process. The education team at Gates took an aligned but distinct approach that involved lots of listening to stakeholders, including school leaders, teachers, and students. We learned significant lessons during the pandemic, notably that education was undergoing a once-in-a-generation shift — and as funders, we need to think differently about how we do grantmaking. While our new strategic direction did not fully go into effect until 2022, our 2021 grants and initiated work began to reflect our evolving direction:

Gates Family Foundation’s K-12 education program continues to be driven by the vision that all children in Colorado have access to educational opportunities that support their long-term success. To advance this, in 2021 we focused our resources to seed innovation and support effective and diverse autonomous public school models; pursue system-level reforms that create the conditions necessary to sustain effective schools; support community-based programs in rural areas; develop more robust human capital pipelines across the state; and sustain media, advocacy, research, and engagement efforts that strengthen the education ecosystem.

In 2021, Gates’ education program paid out $2,227,000 in strategic grants to 29 organizations and $420,000 in responsive capital grants.

In response to national and local conversations and challenges around racial equity, the Gates education and communication staff initiated and organized a youth and teacher webinar with a focus on racial justice and mental health. Organizing partners included Chalkbeat, Colorado Youth Congress, Young Americans Aspiring for Social and Political Action (YAASPA), and the Colorado Education Initiative. The event was youth-led and Chalkbeat facilitated. Close to 100 people attended the webinar.

Gates’ close partner and grantee Lyra Colorado continued to advance Climatarium to rural communities throughout the state. Specifically, Gates gave a grant to River Science to expand its college and career credentialed hydrology pathway beyond Cañon City High School to all three school districts in the Fremont County Collaborative. Lyra and Gates staff also helped to launch a new regional collaborative with four Yampa Valley school districts to explore interest in collaborating to develop a climate change education pathway for students. And Lyra’s Environmental Science & Climate Institute (ESCI) engages students interested in environmental sciences and climate change through a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach. After successfully launching ESCI in 2020, Lyra found a strong partner in Fort Lewis College, which hosted the 2021 ESCI Summer Institute with 24 students from the five-district region.

2021 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: EDUCATION

Laia Mitchell, Senior Program Officer, Community Development
Whitney Johnson, Program Officer, Community Development
Lisa Rucker, Senior Program Officer, Capital Grants
Melissa Milios Davis, Vice President, Informed Communities

The year of 2020 was a devastating time for Colorado communities. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on health and the economy created uncertainty and loss across the state. Unemployment rates rose sharply, food insecurity and housing instability increased, and many small businesses shuttered or struggled to find ways to operate in a changed world. Local governments and nonprofits worked to meet the basic needs of their communities with less revenue and while working to protect staff in a time of uncertainty.

COVID-19 also exacerbated and revealed existing community disparities and structural inequity. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) have been harder hit by both the virus and the economic impacts from it. Concurrently, repeated incidents of police brutality against BIPOC have led to a broader discourse about systemic racial injustice in America, including access to capital, housing, jobs, education, transit, parks, public space, and many other components of community development. In 2020, Gates’ Community Development program shifted staff time and resources toward COVID response with a focus on equity, including identification and support of organizations addressing food insecurity, housing insecurity, and support to small businesses left out of federal response programs.

In addition to COVID response grants, the Gates Community Development program committed $495,000 in strategic grants to eight organizations in 2020, and $1,335,000 in responsive capital grants to 12 organizations. In 2020, the Foundation approved two (non-COVID) community development impact investments, including a deposit in Native American Bank (fixed income, $240,000), and the Metro Denver Impact Facility (debt, $1.25M).

Access to Economic Opportunity was the most robust strategy area in 2020, and the Foundation continues to advance community wealth building strategies, such as the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center to advance co-op conversions around Colorado; Mi Casa Resource Center and the ACT303 effort to support small businesses and community planning in East Colfax; and the NPX effort to catalyze economic mobility through large investments in select nonprofits.

Within the Informed Communities program area, Gates staff continued to support the Colorado Media Project as a multi-funder, community-led initiative to strengthen and transform Colorado’s local journalism ecosystem. CMP priorities in 2020 included working with partners to launch the Colorado News Collaborative, which in June hired veteran journalist Laura Frank as its first executive director; developing and awarding a pool of funds to ensure diverse and multi-lingual communities have access vital COVID news and information; and convening journalists and community members for frank conversations on journalism’s role in systemic racism. CMP also supported 25 Colorado newsrooms with $5,000 challenge grants for the year-end #newsCOneeds campaign, which resulted in more than $580,000 raised for the cohort in the month of December. Apart from CMP, program officers from all of Gates’ focus areas continued to provide direct grants to newsrooms covering important issues, including Chalkbeat Colorado, Colorado Public Radio, High Country News, and Rocky Mountain PBS. Gates also made an impact investment in The Colorado Sun, bolstering its ability to scale as a member-supported statewide newsroom.

Additional grantee highlights include:

MILE HIGH CONNECTS: In 2020, Gates re-committed support to the Mile High Connects collaborative table. MHC was quick to respond to COVID and launched a mini-grants program and additional supports. MHC has been participating as a selected site in the national Strong Prosperous and Resilient Communities Challenge, bringing national funding and capital pipelines for equitable development to the metro area. MHC member and previous GFF grantee Enterprise Community Partners worked on eviction prevention and COVID-related housing policy and received support in 2020 through Gates’ COVID Response Fund.

SAN LUIS VALLEY LOCAL FOODS COALITION: The SLVLFC is a long-time Gates grantee and partner, and a 2020 grant to the organization helped the organization continue the Valley Roots Food Hub and serve as a key player in regional and statewide food system efforts. Through the Gates’ COVID Response Fund, the Foundation also supported the Colorado Farm and Food Systems Respond and Rebuild Fund, which launched in April 2020 with philanthropic support, and was awarded an additional $1 million from the Colorado Department of Agriculture to expand the work.

COMMUNITY BUILDERS: In 2020, Gates also recommitted support to long-time partner Community Builders to guide planning processes that advance economic opportunity and smart growth in Colorado towns and communities.

2020 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: VIBRANT COMMUNITIES

Mary Seawell, Senior Vice President
Abby Schaller, Senior Program Officer
Ana Soler, Senior Program Officer

The mission of Gates Family Foundation’s K-12 education program is to ensure that all children in Colorado have access to education opportunities that support their long-term success. To advance this mission, we focus our resources to seed innovation and support effective and diverse autonomous public school models; pursue system-level reforms that create the conditions necessary to sustain effective schools; support community-based programs in rural areas; develop more robust human capital pipelines across the state; and sustain media, advocacy, research, and engagement efforts that strengthen the education ecosystem.

In 2020, Gates’ education program awarded $1,185,000 in strategic grants to 15 organizations and $525,000 in responsive capital grants to 12 organizations. This past year was characterized by unprecedented disruptions to student learning. The education program adapted grantmaking and approaches to respond quickly and flexibly to the changing realities of K-12 education in Colorado.

COVID Response

In the weeks after the March COVID-19 shutdowns, Gates staff gathered information from district partners on food distribution activities and needs. The Foundation rapidly deployed $22,500 in food security grants to key district partners.

Gates, Lyra Colorado, and a coalition of partners (RESCHOOL Colorado, Empower Schools, Donnell-Kay Foundation, Colorado Succeeds, RootED Denver, and Daniels Fund) launched the Education Innovation Fund – a K-12 initiative to support nimble and creative responses to meet students needs in the wake of COVID-19. The fund awarded 34 promising projects $320,000 in grants. Gates and partners captured lessons learned from the effort through video, virtual convenings, and surveys.

Gates worked with the Governor’s Office and Gary Community Ventures to launch the Response, Innovation, and Student Equity (RISE) Planning and Design Support (PDS) fund. This initiative supported 15 prospective applicants to the Governor’s RISE fund with resources and design support to develop impactful applications and strong implementation plans. The RISE PDS Fund prioritized support to rural applicants serving diverse student populations. Eight of the 15 PDS-funded projects were ultimately selected to receive significant grants from the RISE fund.

Gates staff also provided support to the Governor’s Office and the RISE Selection Committee with analysis, tools, and facilitation throughout the RISE review process. In total, the RISE fund awarded $41 million to 22 innovative efforts across the state.

Southwest Environment and Climate Institute

Lyra Colorado and Gates continue to partner on education projects statewide. Gates is a supporter of Lyra both through financial and staff time support. Gates and Lyra partnered with six southwest Colorado school districts and Fort Lewis College to launch the Colorado Environment and Climate Institute (ECI), a program that supports students with unique and shared climate change-focused curriculum, project-based learning, and career exploration. In August of 2020, students from all participating districts convened in Durango for a three-day kick-off Summer Institute. Gatherings were held outdoors, and the event strictly adhered to all public health guidelines. Students, teachers, and administrators who participated in the Institute left feeling energized about ECI and the year ahead.

Efforts to elevate student voice

There were several Gates-led efforts to include students in decision making.

Gates staff co-hosted a webinar with Chalkbeat Colorado and the Colorado Education Initiative to elevate student voices during the pandemic. Ten students from across the state shared their experiences of COVID-19 related impacts on school and home life, opinions and recommendations on remote learning, and their engagement with current events, including the racial justice movement. More than 170 parents, teachers, and community leaders logged in to hear from the panel.

In partnership with YouthRoots, Gates created a remote Philanthropy Fellowship for youth 18-24 who are interested in learning more about the work of foundations and nonprofits. Eleven foundations signed up to host two fellows each for the fall of 2021. The Growing Insight and Voice (GIV)  Fellowship will provide opportunities for youth to discover and explore potential careers in the philanthropic and nonprofit fields; improve the ability of the philanthropic sector to meet community needs by including youth voice, expertise, and wisdom in foundation strategies; and develop a pipeline for youth from communities underrepresented in philanthropy to enter the field.

Gates worked in partnership with Lyra to recruit, train, and support youth advisors to inform all stages of planning, curriculum, and development for the Colorado Environmental Science and Climate Institute and to support grant review for the Governor’s RISE Fund.

Investments

Since 2018, Gates staff have investigated a number of edtech funds. Investments in 2020 include Reach Capital and Owl Ventures.

Reach Capital invests in people and solutions that broaden access to quality education. Edtech products in Reach’s portfolio are grounded in strong pedagogy, research-driven, and support students with limited educational opportunities due to their socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, and geography.

Owl Ventures is at the forefront of the education technology wave and is recognized as the leader in the sector. As barriers that once impeded technological innovation in K-12 classrooms are rapidly removed, the opportunity grows to support transformative edtech companies that reshape learning and increase access for all students.

Collaboratives

In addition to grantmaking, the Gates education team also worked closely with strategic partners on some existing and some exciting new initiatives in 2020:

Colorado Education Organizing Funder Collaborative (CEO) – Gates staff has participated in this collaborative for six years, committing funding and staff time to support CEO’s mission to reduce the achievement and opportunity gaps for low-income public school students of color in the Denver metro area. CEO harnesses support for community organizing that educates, builds leadership among, and engages low-income parents and young people to advocate for effective education reform solutions. Over the years, CEO has increased collaborative efforts among grantees, has developed and implemented grantee self-assessment surveys of organizational strength and core organizing competencies, has provided responsive technical assistance to grantees based on survey results and shared learning, and has enhanced grantee operational and organizing capacity. Over the past six years Gates’ commitment of $375,000 to support the collaborative effort was joined by $1,744,000 in commitments from other foundations.

In 2020, Gates and Lyra Colorado staff initiated a meeting with multiple partners, including school districts in Fremont County (Cañon City Schools RE-1, Fremont School District RE-2, and Cotopaxi School District RE-3) and Pueblo Community College. These participants went on to form a multi-district collaborative, The Fremont Multidistrict Initiative, to reinvent how a region can cooperatively utilize resources and sustainably provide an outstanding educational experience for rural students by expanding opportunities and offering access to robust college and career pathways, regardless of the district they attend. To accomplish this work, the initiative established a steering committee composed of the superintendents from each district, as well as the dean of the Fremont campus of Pueblo Community College. Two of Gates’ grantees, Empower Schools and Trendlines, supported the initiative.

Through all of this work, the education team at Gates strives to be thoughtful partners and to listen to all participants in the education community, in order to make progress in advancing educational equity and access to opportunity for all students in Colorado. We are grateful to all of the organizations and communities with whom we have been honored to partner with over the course of this most extraordinary year.

2020 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: EDUCATIONAL EQUITY

Throughout 2020, Gates Family Foundation staff and board members 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.

In the stories below, you can read about Gates’ responsive grantmaking, impact investments, and funding partnerships developed in 2020 to support Colorado communities’ response to the COVID pandemic:

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)

34 Innovative Projects Receive Total of $335,000 from COVID-19 Education Fund (Sept. 1)

Gates Announces Third Round of 2020 COVID Response Grants (Sept. 18)

15 Teams Selected to Receive Planning and Design Support to Apply for RISE Education Fund (Oct. 29)

25 Colorado Newsrooms Selected for Matching Grants to Raise a Quarter-Million for Local Journalism (Nov. 6)

More than $300K Total Awarded to 34 Rural Theaters via Public-Private COVID Support Initiative (Jan. 6, 2021)

Gates Salutes 32 RISE Fund Grantees Sharing Over $40 Million to Innovate and Transform Public Education (Jan. 25, 2021)

2020 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: COVID-19 RESPONSE

Russ Schnitzer, Senior Program Officer
Whitney Johnson, Program Officer

Daring to look back, the unprecedented challenges of 2020 have profoundly impacted life locally and globally. Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the previous year in Colorado brought into sharper focus some of the themes about which Gates’ Natural Resources program staff have been exploring and learning.

A forest health crisis that began building nearly 20 years ago intersected with a rapidly intensifying climate crisis and, in 2020, materialized into the worst year for Colorado wildfires on record. In a single season, more than 665,000 acres burned at a cost of more than $266 million for suppression alone. A total of 1,152 homes were destroyed; two lives were lost. The conditions that led to these catastrophic fires persist, and landscape-scale solutions to forest management are urgently needed to create greater resilience for people and nature.

The state’s water supply and demand gap – the difference between how much water is provided by snowpack and how much water is needed for consumptive uses – is worsening. Today, that gap poses perhaps an even greater threat to Colorado’s economy and ways of life than ever before. The winter snowpack of 2020-2021 did little to provide relief to Colorado’s watersheds, as evidenced by almost non-existent spring runoff. With no relief in sight, Colorado must provide leadership for the hard work necessary to invest in resilience and adapt to this “new normal.”

A slowly-building crisis of relevance is also evident in Colorado’s conservation field. Values of diversity, equity, and inclusion aren’t reflected often enough in the management of natural resources, the protection of landscapes, or in the voices advocating for the same at every level. Efforts to make conservation more inclusive and diverse will take time; this is a Gates Family Foundation priority now and into the future.

Other program priorities of Gates’ Natural Resources remain critically important:

Agricultural land is still being converted by residential and industrial development at an alarming rate, as an aging cohort of farmers and ranchers face increasingly challenging social and economic pressures.

Critical wildlife populations and habitats are at even greater risk from an expanded set of perils that includes a changing climate, loss of agricultural stewardship, and management mandates by popular vote.

Recreational use patterns and intensity have spiked throughout Colorado, as pandemic-weary residents seek refuge and release in the outdoors – creating more challenges for budget-starved public land managers.

We are responding to these challenges. The issues described above have directly informed our efforts to develop the Foundation’s next five-year strategic plan, the process for which began in 2020 and will continue through the end of 2021. We look forward to sharing this new strategy with partners and grantees, including the many new relationships that will be required to make progress. We know that we must double down on listening, bringing diverse stakeholders together, and finding common ground.

Supporting the conservation of Colorado’s natural resources is a unique privilege, and it is a role that our staff and board carry out with honor and humility. Our work is only as strong as our grantees and funding partners. Thank you for the opportunity.

2020 GRANTS AND IMPACT INVESTMENTS AWARDED: NATURAL RESOURCES

Mary Seawell, Senior Vice President

The mission of Gates Family Foundation’s K-12 education program is to ensure that all children in Colorado have access to education opportunities that support their long-term success.

To advance this mission, we focus our resources to seed innovation and support effective and diverse autonomous public school models; pursue system-level reforms that create the conditions necessary to sustain effective schools; support community-based programs in rural areas; develop more robust human capital pipelines across the state; and sustain media, advocacy, research, and engagement efforts that strengthen the education ecosystem.

In 2019, the education program awarded $2,745,750 in strategic grants to 23 organizations and $214,765 in responsive capital grants to seven organizations. These commitments are detailed in the list below, and we’d like to spotlight just a few of the organizations that are changing lives:

RISE Colorado is training principals and school leaders and increasing their knowledge and capacity regarding best practices relating to family engagement, educational equity, systemic racism, and how power and privilege impacts education and school systems.

Keystone Policy Center is working with Ute Mountain Ute tribal leaders to design a new tribal school to be located on the reservation. Financial and technical support from Gates has helped the tribe-led team explore the concept and feasibility of such a school, and then define the pathway to execution and operation.

Climb Higher Colorado is providing a fellowship for education leaders to gain skills, develop a network, and construct and implement strategies necessary to address systemic educational challenges facing students and families.

Colorado Future Farmers is providing professional development and mentoring to agriculture teachers across Colorado in an effort to increase embedded support and retention.

National Black Child Development Institute launched The Denver Journal of Education and Community, a community-based academic journal and multi-media platform that aims to build awareness of community perspectives of Pre-K to 12 education in the Denver metro region.

In addition to grantmaking, the Gates education team also worked closely with strategic partners on some exciting new initiatives in 2019:

We joined with local and national partners to launch Lyra Colorado, an independent nonprofit dedicated to supporting educator and community empowerment by creating more responsive education systems and structures. Lyra works with the three Denver Public Schools Innovation Zones to ensure their long-term sustainability and advance their mission to create systems that support and elevate educators.  Lyra also supported the creation of a regional partnership in southwest Colorado to help five school districts partner and two higher education institutions to create more opportunities for students.  Gates long-time partner Empower Schools is leading that work with financial support from Lyra.

We wrapped up a multi-year process with the Roaring Fork School District and regional charter schools that resulted in a District-Charter Collaboration Compact of shared, formal agreements that benefit students and families. The Gates team continues to provide implementation support to the district and schools to ensure they are meeting their shared goals of achieving equity and equal access to public education in the Roaring Fork Valley.

We worked with three rural communities – Cañon City, Durango, and Alamosa – to advance local initiatives in K-12 education. The effort was a partnership with Wend Collective to harness the creative capacity of rural communities to solve problems within their own education systems. With The Civic Canopy as an implementation partner, Gates and Wend supported local groups in each geography with targeted facilitation, analysis, and strategy development to advance big ideas for their schools, students, and communities. Gates published a case study on the effort to share learning on the initiative.

Through all of this work, the education team at Gates strives to leverage all of the Foundation’s resources – dollars, people, relationships, credibility, access, convening capability, and physical space – to make progress in advancing educational equity and access to opportunity for all children in Colorado. We are grateful for the opportunity to work and learn alongside our partners, and we celebrate their successes.

2019 Grants and Impact Investments Awarded: Educational Equity