Winter/Spring 2024 Funding Opportunity
CSHF’s Winter/Spring 2024 Funding Opportunity is open! It is available to Pikes Peak region tax-exempt and tax-supported organizations doing work in at least one of the following three funding focus areas: (1) Access to healthcare; (2) Suicide prevention; and (3) Prevention or healing trauma.
Here is the funding cycle timeline:
- Now through Jan. 22, 2024: Pre-application phone calls. This is a required step in our process for any interested organization.
- Jan. 30, 2024, noon MT: Application deadline. No exceptions.
- Late March 2024 (anticipated): Grant decisions communicated to applicants.
To learn more about the funding cycle, go to our website, https://cshf.net/grantmaking/, and scroll to Grant Opportunities.
Note: CSHF’s Healthy Environments funding opportunity (food, physical activity or transitional or affordable housing) will be offered in Summer/Fall 2024.
Evaluating How CSHF’s Contribution Makes A Difference
CSHF is kicking off a new evaluation effort aimed at better understanding how its grant contributions have made a difference in the life course of some of the organizations we have funded. An outside evaluation expert, Courtney Ricci, PhD, will work with eight of CSHF’s longstanding funded partners to explore this question in depth. The results will be shared with board, staff, the participating funded partners and the broader public. It is hoped that the resulting insights will help CSHF and its stakeholders better understand how philanthropic support can make a difference to non-profit and tax-supported organizations in the Pikes Peak region.
Trustee News
The Colorado Springs City Council reappointed Jacob Pruitt and Erik Wallace, MD to a second term starting Jan. 1, 2024. Council also formally appointed Ann Cesare and Fr. Augustine Nellary, PhD to the board as the UCHealth-Memorial and Penrose Saint-Francis Health Services representatives.
Mia Ramirez will end her many years of board service on Dec. 31, 2023 due to term limits, and the Mayor’s office will be seeking a nominee to replace her. Keep your eye on the City’s Boards & Commissions page for the board opening. Candidates from El Paso and/or Teller County are welcome to apply. The desired attributes in the new trustee are:
- Expertise in population health/public health
- Expertise and knowledge of social determinants of health
- Knowledge of local underinvested communities
- Expertise in transitional or affordable housing
- Insight and knowledge of local educational institutions (early childhood; K-12; higher ed)
…and, as always, someone who helps the board reflect the rich diversity of the region.
Board leadership for 2024 will include Jim Johnson as Board Chair (his third year in this role), Mary Coleman as Secretary (her third year in this role) and Curtis Brown as Treasurer (his first year in this role). We thank Jacob Pruitt for his service as Board Treasurer for the past two years. He did a great job, and we are fortunate that he will continue to serve on the Finance Committee.
What We Are Reading About or Listening to Now
- The Colorado Health Institute’s “Sneak Peek” of the 2023 Colorado Health Access Survey. This video is from their recent Hot Issues in Health symposium on Dec. 1, 2023.
- An article about how Abigail Echo-Hawk uses public health data to drive change for good.
- Jeneen Interlandi’s OpEd in the New York Times is a blueprint of sorts regarding what we can do to more effectively address the addiction crisis in our communities. It’s a very long read but worth it.
- Anderson Cooper’s podcast on grief, All There Is. Season 2 just dropped, and every episode is so worth it. Given that every human experiences grief in some form or fashion, it’s surprising how little we speak about it. Cooper provides an entry point, and it’s so poignant and good.