Purpose
Colorado Springs Health Foundation’s main purpose is to make grants. This page outlines our general grant guidelines and our funding focus areas. Please note that each specific funding opportunity may have different or additional requirements or parameters.
Grant Guidelines
Applicant organizations must be one of the following:
- Tax-exempt (501(c)3)
- Operating under the fiscal agency of a tax-exempt organization
- Tax-supported like a school or local/state government
Applicant 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, described below.
In general, Colorado Springs Health Foundation will consider all types of grant requests (general operating, program, capital, capacity-building/technical assistance, etc.).
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 submit 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.
Colorado Springs Health Foundation does not support:
- For-profit organizations
- Individuals
- Requests for annual appeals, membership drives, fundraising events, political candidates or lobbying efforts
- Requests from re-granting organizations for their own grantmaking activities. Note, this does not apply to collaborative funding efforts among funders.
Colorado Springs Health Foundation understands that health outcomes (length of life and quality of life) are influenced by multiple factors. These factors include clinical care, health behaviors, social and economic determinants and the physical environment. This is termed a “population health framework” or “population health model.” To learn more about it and how our community stacks up against other Colorado counties, check out the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s County Health Rankings and Roadmaps.
Funding Focus Areas
Colorado Springs Health Foundation has identified four funding focus areas. These areas align with the Foundation’s mission, community need, community and stakeholder input, and the population health framework described above.
- Expand access to healthcare for those in greatest need. This includes care for physical, mental, oral and/or substance use disorder-related concerns, and initiatives to address the healthcare workforce shortage.
- Prevent suicide
- Prevent or heal trauma
- Cultivate healthy environments in high-need or underserved communities, specifically and exclusively:
- Efforts that encourage greater physical activity
- Efforts that increase access to healthy, affordable food
- Efforts that increase or retain transitional or permanent affordable housing
Grant Length
Most grants are for one year.
Multiyear grant requests are considered when an organization or collaboration needs support to initiate a new approach to addressing a community need or concern. CSHF will not entertain multiyear requests for general operating support, ongoing program operations, or capital requests.
If you think your potential application meets the multi-year criteria, please discuss this with staff during the pre-application phone call.
Timing
We split our main funding opportunity into two grant cycles:
- Winter/Spring: The opportunity to request general operating, program/project, or capital funding for Access to Healthcare, Suicide Prevention and Preventing/Healing Trauma requests.
- Summer/Fall: The opportunity to request general operating, program/project, or capital funding for Healthy Environments requests.
Upcoming deadlines:
Winter/Spring 2025 Funding Opportunity
- Funding Focus Area:
Access to healthcare; Suicide prevention; Preventing/Healing Trauma - Open Date: Monday, November 4, 2024
- Grant Deadline: Tuesday, January 28, 2025, noon Mountain Time
- Grant Decision: late March 2025 (anticipated)
Summer/Fall 2025 Funding Opportunity
- Funding Focus Area:
Healthy Environments:
(1) access to healthy, affordable food
(2) access to greater physical activity
(3) transitional or permanent affordable housing - Open Date: Monday, April 28, 2025 (tentative)
- Grant Deadline: Tuesday, July 22, 2025, noon Mountain Time (tentative)
- Grant Decision: late September 2025 (tentative)
Other
The Colorado Springs Health Foundation will consider emergency funding requests in exceptional and uncommon circumstances. Please contact CSHF staff for additional information.
In rare occasions, the Colorado Springs Health Foundation may choose to consider requests that are within its mission yet outside the funding focus areas and offer both high potential for impact and strong alignment with CSHF values.
The grant application and information submitted in support of this grant application may be subject to release pursuant to the Colorado Open (Public) Records Act, C.R.S. § 24-72-201 et seq. This means that your detailed application, grant decision, final report contents and other application-related information may be shared.
The Foundation’s geographic scope is El Paso and Teller Counties, Colorado.
Grant FAQs
CSHF offers two funding opportunities a year for general operating, program or capital support.
The Winter/Spring Funding Opportunity opens mid-November with applications due late January. The three focus areas covered in this funding opportunity are (1) access to healthcare for those in greatest need; (2) suicide prevention; and (3) trauma prevention or healing. The Summer/Fall Funding Opportunity opens mid-May with application due late July.
The focus area covered in this funding opportunity is healthy environments in high-need or underserved communities, specifically and exclusively: (1) efforts that encourage greater physical activity; (2) efforts that increase access to healthy, affordable food; and (3) efforts that increase or retain transitional or permanent affordable housing. CSHF also has two ongoing funding opportunities that have no specific deadlines (collaboration and capacity-building).
All grant cycles are subject to change.
Generally, the review and decision making process takes between two and four months. Decision turnaround time depends on how many applications are up for review at a given time and when the application was received relative to the board’s meeting schedule.
CSHF does not have set grant award minimum or maximum. We look at the amount of the request relative to the total cost of the project/program and/or organizational budget. We like to see a diverse network of support for the work. Like most funders, CSHF prefers not to be the sole or majority funder.
If you are facing some implementation challenges and/or if you won’t spend down the grant award within the grant period, please call CSHF staff to discuss. An extension is possible, but we need to speak with you and understand the situation before considering an extension request.
Grant Opportunities
Capacity-Building Mini-Grant Opportunity
Colorado Springs Health Foundation makes grants to target immediate health care needs and encourage healthy living in El Paso and Teller Counties, Colorado. The Foundation acknowledges that organizations addressing the health and well-being of our community need to invest in their own capacities, competencies and skills in order to do this important work well.
As such, Colorado Springs Health Foundation is offering an additional capacity-building funding opportunity – one that is smaller, more responsive (faster decisions) and lower barrier (shorter application).
Capacity-Building Opportunity
Colorado Springs Health Foundation makes grants to target immediate health care needs and encourage healthy living in El Paso and Teller Counties, Colorado. The Foundation acknowledges that organizations addressing the health and well-being of our community need to invest in their own capacities, competencies and skills in order to do this important work well.
Winter/Spring Funding Opportunity
OPPORTUNITY SPECIFICS
CSHF seeks applications that focus on the following focus areas:
- Expand access to healthcare for those in greatest need. This includes care for physical, mental, oral and/or substance use disorder-related concerns. It also includes initiatives to address the healthcare workforce shortage.
- Prevent suicide
- Prevent or heal trauma
Fostering Collaboration Opportunity
Colorado Springs Health Foundation’s mission is to make grants to target immediate health care needs and encourage healthy living in El Paso and Teller Counties, Colorado. One of CSHF’s values is collaboration.
The Foundation has a strong interest in how collaborative models can help address our community’s complex health challenges. The Foundation believes that organizational collaboration holds unique promise for driving innovation and making a significant impact on community health.
Summer/Fall Funding Opportunity
OPPORTUNITY SPECIFICS
The Summer/Fall 2024 Funding Opportunity will accept requests related to healthy environments in high-need or underserved communities. Specifically and exclusively, CSHF invests in:
- Efforts that encourage greater physical activity
- Efforts that increase access to healthy, affordable food
- Efforts that increase or maintain/retain transitional or permanent affordable housing. This includes home improvement, weatherization and energy efficiency efforts to maintain affordable housing as well as efforts to connect people in need with transitional or permanent affordable housing, e.g. case management, resource coordination, navigation, and support.
- NOTE: Emergency shelter and emergency rent/mortgage requests will not be considered
