Recent Grant Awards
Colorado Springs Health Foundation Board of Trustees recently awarded $1.5M in grants to 23 organizations. The awards focused on a few key social determinants of health: housing, education, employment and economic stability. While CSHF has historically invested in some social determinants of health, these particular determinants were new. Through the applications submitted, we learned a great deal about what work is being done to bolster these important social and economic domains of health in the Pikes Peak region. A complete list of the awards can be found on our website. Scroll down to “Press” to find the October 2021 press release.
Upcoming Learning Session
Upcoming Learning Session
Colorado Springs Health Foundation will offer a learning session on the 2021 Colorado Health Access Survey results. Every two years, Colorado Health Institute surveys the state of health access in Colorado. This years’ survey offers interesting insights into the impact of the pandemic, access to oral health, and details on inequities and disparities within many health access domains. The session is on Friday, Dec. 3, 9 – 10:30 a.m. via Zoom. Go here to register for the session.
Funding Focus Area Change
Recently, the Colorado Springs Health Foundation Board of Trustees decided to make a small change to its funding focus areas. Effective immediately, it will incorporate “Address the healthcare workforce shortage” into the “Expand access to healthcare for those in greatest need” funding focus area because workforce shortages are a dimension of healthcare access. To be clear, CSHF will continue to invest in initiatives that address the healthcare workforce shortage through its healthcare access funding focus area. If you have any questions regarding this change, please contact staff at [email protected].
Upcoming Main Funding Opportunity
Colorado Springs Health Foundation will soon open its 2022 Main Funding Opportunity. This annual opportunity is available to El Paso and Teller County-serving organizations that do work in close alignment with one or more of our funding focus areas. The funding opportunity announcement will be communicated by email, and will likely be shared in late November with applications due in late January 2022 and awards made in Spring 2022. If you are not already on our email distribution list, go to www.cshf.net , scroll to the bottom right of the home page to join so that you receive notice of this funding opportunity.
If your organization currently has an open general operating, capital or project/program grant with CSHF, you are not eligible to apply. Pre-application phone calls with CSHF staff will, once again, be required for any main funding opportunity application to be considered. Details on how to schedule these pre-application calls will be included in the funding opportunity announcement. Please do not wait until the last few days prior to the application deadline, as we may not be able to accommodate all last-minute calls. Questions? Please contact staff at [email protected].
A Fond Farewell
Three of CSHF’s nine founding trustees are leaving the board having reached their term limits (nine years). Kathy Boe, Jon Medved and Thayer Tutt were among the initial nine trustees appointed to establish the Foundation. They volunteered tirelessly for three years before the funding became available to begin operations, and then they continued to contribute their many talents, providing important strategic, investment, financial and nonprofit governance counsel to our organization. They will be sorely missed. The remaining board and staff express deep gratitude for their many contributions, including clearsighted leadership and dedicated stewardship.
What We’re Reading, Listening to or Viewing Now
“To Combat Gun Violence, Clean Up the Neighborhood,” a New York Times guest essay by Dr Eugenia South, which again demonstrates the power of our environment. Her research has shown how investing in our neighborhoods links to a decrease in violence.
New York Times guest essay by M. Leona Godin, “”Helen Keller and the Problem of ‘Inspiration Porn’” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/opinion/helen-keller.html
The Waters of Systems Change By John Kania, Mark Kramer, Peter Senge https://www.fsg.org/publications/water_of_systems_change