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Executive Director Transition Update

Following the announcement of Deborah Jordy's transition to senior advisor in 2025, the SCFD sent out a request for proposals to local, regional, and national search firms on January 6, 2025. Proposals were reviewed by the executive search committee, and the committee selected Kittleman & Associates. The SCFD search committee and Kittleman & Associates will work to present a successful candidate to the SCFD board for approval in the summer of 2025.

You can follow this process on our website.

SCFD Executive Director Survey

The SCFD Search Committee is seeking your leadership’s feedback as they prepare to launch the search for the organization’s next Executive Director. Your responses will help inform the skills, attributes, and prior experience SCFD seek in the next leader. Your feedback is confidential and will be collected by Kittleman & Associates. Watch for the survey link in your inbox this week. Kindly provide your feedback by 10:00 AM MST on Friday, March 21. Thank you! 

A Penny's Journey: From Your Pocket to Local Rivers and Beyond

A resident living here in the 7-county metro area may go buy coffee and a pastry at their favorite local cafe. As they sip on their drink, they may look over their receipt, noticing that a couple of cents in sales tax have been allocated to the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). But what does that tiny tax actually mean?

Well, those pennies start their journey by being collected by the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District. They join their other penny friends, waiting to be distributed to nearly 300 SCFD-funded arts, culture, and science organizations, from local gems to the metro area’s largest cultural institutions. But it’s when grants are allocated that a penny’s adventure really begins: the possibilities are endless. The penny from your pocket could end up supporting free admission to a new exhibition, music classes, or in this case, it could even travel alongside a child to a local river in search of microplastics and eventually, to the ocean. 

Boulder County’s Ocean First Institute (OFI) is a Tier III SCFD-funded partner. Its educational programming, research, and conservation projects inspire young minds to explore marine science and innovate new ways to understand and protect the ocean. Here in land-locked Colorado, that starts with supporting water research and conservation in our own backyard. For years, Ocean First Institute had focused on exposing Coloradans to sharks, as its CEO and Chief Scientist, Dr. Mikki McComb-Kobza, is a marine biologist with a focus on the biology, behavior, abundance, and movement of sharks. However, when Dr. McComb-Kobza saw an article with the headline “It’s Raining Plastics” about findings of microplastics in Colorado’s rainfall, she knew that Ocean First Institute had to do something.

Don't Forget: Add Your Free Days to the SCFD Website

Please help us share the amazing programming you provide by adding your organization's free days to our 2025 Free Days calendar here. This is one of our most-visited webpages, and we need your help making sure it has the most updated information so district residents can take advantage of free programs.

What you need, when you need it

Just a friendly reminder that we are continuing to add information, tutorials, grant deadlines, and other important details to pages dedicated to your tier of partnership with the district. Please use these resources to help answer your questions. 

Tier I | Tier II | Tier III 

Resources for Good

Roundtables from The Collaborative of the SCFD

The Collaborative of the SCFD hosts roundtables, trainings and networking events, which are open to all SCFD Tiers. Please RSVP to Brianna Firestone (Brianna@CollaborativeSCFD.org) if you would like to attend the events below or if you have any questions.

Volunteer Roundtable

Tuesday, March 25, 2025 | 3:30 – 5:00 p.m.

Mizel Arts & Culture

350 S Dahlia St, Denver, CO 80246

Please join us for another Volunteer Roundtable right before Volunteer Appreciation Month begins! This is an opportunity for us to chat about volunteer initiatives as well as volunteer appreciation month ideas and efforts. Bring yourself, discussion topics, and questions!

Education Roundtable

Thursday, April 10, 2025 | 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

Lone Tree Arts Center

10075 Commons St, Lone Tree, CO 80124

Please join us at Lone Tree Arts Center for another Education Roundtable. This is an opportunity for educators and education coordinators to connect and share updates and ideas in person.

Development Roundtable

Friday, June 20, 2025 | 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Colorado Railroad Museum

17155 W 44th Ave, Golden, CO 80403

Please join us for our final Development roundtable of the season.

New Staff? Make Sure They're Signed Up for SCFD Email Communications!

As the 2025 grant cycle continues, please ensure that any new staff at your organization who might be involved with SCFD funds sign up for our email communications. We send regular updates to organizations by Tier regarding grant deadlines, trainings and more.

"Elevating the SCFD" Shout Out

As part of our ongoing work with you to help raise the profile of the SCFD for residents across the metro area, we’ll be giving a hat tip to organizations who have found a way to include SCFD in their outreach. The goal is to highlight all the ways your organization can help. 

We welcome all funded partners to join us in elevating the value of SCFD. Need ideas or content? Check out our Communicator's Toolkit. And don't forget to tag SCFD in your social media shout-outs or make sure there's an SCFD staff member on the distribution list for any email shout-outs for the chance to be featured below.

Hat Tip to the Molly Brown House Museum

A special thank you to the Molly Brown House Museum for the social media shout-out to SCFD! It's always fun to see where SCFD banners end up.

News from the Board

April Board Meeting

The next meeting of the SCFD Board of Directors will be held virtually at 1 p.m. on April 24, 2025. Get information for joining meetings and see the full calendar of 2025 board meetings.

Other News You Can Use

Did you know you can stay up to date on all things SCFD more than just once a month through our newsletter? Check out our News You Can Use webpage!

SCFD | scfd.org