Getting Settled:
Moving - Unpacking - Activating our
New Center for Philanthropy
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We are happy to report we are all moved into our new office home. Moving day was February 18. While we only moved one block - diagonally across Rood Avenue from the Alpine Bank Building to 128 North 5th Street - it took three moving vans and almost 7 hours. At one point, there were nine moving guys, three ProVelocity tech support guys, two Office Outfitter furniture guys and five staff members running around and trying to stay out of each other's way. A big thank you to Bray Real Estate and their van crew for picking up furniture in the old office and delivering to RiversEdge West, Child and Migrant Services, and Riverside Educational Center.
Aside from the almost-to-be-expected tech and phone glitches, we are settled in and managing day to day business in our beautiful new offices.
We have had a busy schedule of meetings in our community meeting room... a luncheon for our board of directors, a family night for staff spouses and children, a gathering of Waldeck grantees, a special event for our WCCF Alumni Board (photo above), and a donor education event on our suicide prevention work (see story below).
Our capital campaign to purchase our side of the building is going well. To date, we have raised about $3M of the total $3.6M needed to purchase our office unit, make some interior improvements, furnish all the meeting rooms, enhance technology, and design public exhibits. We invite donations of any size to help us complete our Dreaming Forward... Building our Foundation campaign.
The project is approved as an Enterprise Zone project and may be eligible for a Colorado state tax credit.
To learn more or discuss a donation, please contact our Development Team at klynch@wc-cf.org.
Dreaming Forward... Building our Foundation
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2023 Grants Theme: Building Forward
Capacity Building Grants for
Affordable Housing and Homelessness
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The deadline to apply for Building Forward
grants is May 26, 2023.
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Affordable housing is an increasingly critical community issue in western Colorado and across the state. Our theme for Community Grants this year is Building Forward - capacity building grants for nonprofit organizations addressing affordable housing and homelessness. The application process for Building Forward opened on April 17th and the deadline to apply is May 26, 2023.
The goal for funding is to help nonprofits working on affordable housing and homelessness to strengthen organizational capacity, expand programs, improve competencies and invest in systems to increase impact and effectiveness. Nonprofit and government entities working in the seven counties we serve (Mesa, Garfield, Delta, Montrose, Ouray, Eagle and Rio Blanco) are eligible.
Eligible projects and program costs include:
- Strategic planning or organizational review for sustainability and growth
- Leadership development or staff training
- Launch a new program in strategic plan, but not yet funded
- Feasibility study, planning grant, next steps in planning process for capital campaign
- Technology upgrades
- Legal expertise
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2022 Dreaming Forward Grants Update
Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley
Scales Up Affordable Housing Solutions
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In celebration of our 25th Anniversary, WCCF invested $550,000 to help ten nonprofit partner organizations to "Dream Forward," providing grant funding directed for their own organizational development, capacity-building and/or program expansion.
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Habitat for Humanity's recent regional Housing Summit to discuss housing solutions |
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Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley (Habitat RFV) serves a large region from Aspen to Rifle. This area has been acutely impacted by all facets of the affordable housing crisis from unattainable housing prices, inventory shortages of rental and ownership housing, and ever-expanding commute times for working families, which are destabilizing local economies and contributing to a labor shortage impacting businesses and institutions across the region. The housing need in many Western Slope communities is outpacing Habitat for Humanity’s tried and true method of building one house at a time, through volunteer and future-homeowner sweat equity. With a $30,000 Dreaming Forward grant from our Community Foundation last fall, Habitat RFV commissioned a feasibility study to determine if a regionally-based manufactured-home facility could not only meet the projected housing gap, but dramatically exceed needed numbers and do it cost effectively.
Habitat RFV went into the feasibility study thinking it would partner with a private manufacturer already based in the region. However, the existing business could not meet Habitat RFV’s requirements to build multistory homes for multigenerational families. The feasibility study yielded a new path – for Habitat RFV to build its own production factory to be co-located with a workforce training facility. Habitat RFV has already secured a 7-acre parcel through a lease agreement with the City of Rifle and plans to break ground on a 30,000 – 50,000 square foot production factory dubbed the “Habitat Housing Production and Education Center” or HOPE Center by the end of the year. Habitat RFV projects the factory will produce 100 units annually, with a goal of over 600 units in the first five years.
The production factory will deploy technology using recycled steel, primarily from used cars. This cold-form-rolled-steel technology 3D-prints most components for a Habitat home. A hallmark of Habitat RFV is the organization’s commitment to building net-zero homes and neighborhoods. Locally manufactured homes from recycled steel ensures Habitat RFV can stay true to that commitment, as opposed to sourcing and trucking materials from outside the region. Since adopting a net-zero approach and developing relationships with renewable energy providers, Habitat RFV homeowners pay as low as $14/month in energy bills.
The HOPE Center is not designed simply to build homes for Habitat RFV families, but also to support the regional economy through workforce training and accreditation programs. Habitat RFV is working with local education providers including Colorado Mountain College (CMC), Western Colorado Community College (WCCC), Colorado River Boards of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) to develop a technical trades training program to serve secondary students and post-secondary adults. This program will offer onsite industry-driven training to establish a ready workforce for emerging modular housing / advanced manufacturing industries.
Our Community Foundation’s Dreaming Forward grants were designed for organizations that are thinking big and setting audacious goals. Habitat RFV’s vision to scale up affordable housing solutions for the entire region, while achieving net-zero climate goals and developing the local workforce, encapsulates Dreaming Forward. WCCF is excited to support Habitat RFV’s dream as it becomes a reality.
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Community Impact Council Recognizes Robert Bray with the Doug Sortor Lifetime Legacy Award
The Community Impact Council (CIC) held their annual Inspire Impact breakfast in March to celebrate and honor the work of nonprofits in Mesa County. Robert Bray, CEO of Bray Real Estate, founder of the Bray Cares Foundation managed by WCCF, and a long time donor, was asked to present the CIC's Lifetime Legacy Award, renamed in honor of Doug Sortor, former CIC Chair, nonprofit champion and community leader. At the end of his remarks, Robert was surprised to be presented with the award which recognizes the achievements of leaders who have dedicated a lifetime of dedication to community service and philanthropy.
“This means a lot to me, and I hope that you will carry this legacy of Doug forward in the good work that you all do,” Bray said to the audience of 200 attending the event at CMU.
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Donor
Education Event
Social Worlds and Youth Wellbeing Researchers Preview Study Results
Our Community Foundation was pleased to host a donor education event for an update on the Social Worlds and Youth Wellbeing Study (research study for the prevention of youth suicide in Mesa County). Dr. Anna Mueller, PhD, Luther Dana Waterman Associate Professor of Sociology, Indiana University presented a preview of the research to WCCF donors that provided initial funding of $80,000 to get the study started in 2019. That funding helped leverage a $1.2 million dollar National Institute of Health grant to complete the study. Dr. Mueller discussed initial data that will help our community identify strategies to improve suicide prevention. The full study which includes surveys, interviews, focus groups and one-on-one conversations with youth, school staff, families and community members will be finalized and published in the fall of 2023.
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Online Fund Advisor Portal
Coming Soon!
We are excited to announce that our new Fund Advisor Portal will be here in May! This portal allows fund advisors to interact with their account(s) via a secure, password protected website.
If applicable, more details will be sent to Fund Advisors later this month. Be on the lookout for an email with information on how to access your account.
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The Western Colorado Community Foundation is confirmed in compliance with National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations by the Council on Foundations.
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