Community-Informed Impact Across Colorado
Founded in 1937, El Pomar Foundation has a rich history of enhancing the well-being of Colorado’s residents, with over $700 million in grants distributed statewide. In 2003, the Foundation launched the Regional Partnerships program to better serve rural Colorado. Over the past 20 years, this initiative has significantly increased the Foundation’s impact, tripling the number of grants to rural communities and making more annual grants to these areas than urban ones.
Today, more than 70 local leaders from 11 regions advise on $2.2 million in annual grant making. Starting in 2025, the Foundation will expand this program, increasing funding to $3.6 million annually. This proactive, community-informed approach has become a cornerstone of El Pomar’s grant initiatives, deepening connections and broadening its impact across Colorado.
Founded in 1937, El Pomar Foundation has a rich history of enhancing the well-being of Colorado’s residents, with over $700 million in grants distributed statewide. In 2003, the Foundation launched the Regional Partnerships program to better serve rural Colorado. Over the past 20 years, this initiative has significantly increased the Foundation’s impact, tripling the number of grants to rural communities and making more annual grants to these areas than urban ones.
Today, more than 70 local leaders from 11 regions advise on $2.2 million in annual grant making. Starting in 2025, the Foundation will expand this program, increasing funding to $3.6 million annually. This proactive, community-informed approach has become a cornerstone of El Pomar’s grant initiatives, deepening connections and broadening its impact across Colorado.
Regional Council Grant Spotlights
The Regional Partnerships program creates opportunities for the Foundation to invest deeply in the impactful work of communities across the state and offer support beyond grant making. The work of each Council varies based on the particular needs facing communities within each region. Examples include the long-term partnership between the High Country Regional Council and Lake County Build a Generation, the Northwest Regional Council’s coal transition efforts, and the San Juan Regional Council’s Unify Montrose project.
Over a six-year period, the High Country Regional Council invested in Lake County through its support of Lake County Build a Generation (LCBAG), an entity of Lake County Public Health in Leadville. The Council was specifically interested in supporting the community’s efforts to create and implement the Leadville-Lake County Youth Master Plan, designed to reduce barriers for all children in Leadville. In 2011, LCBAG emerged as the agency responsible for the implementation of the Youth Master Plan.
After an initial, multi-year $385,000 investment towards the Youth Master Plan’s roll out, the Council recommended an additional $115,000 for LCBAG’s development of a strategic plan for the organization’s long-term success and sustainability. This supported LCBAG in hiring a consultant and establishing itself as a standalone 501(c)(3) nonprofit, ultimately aiding the organization in growing its annual budget from $150,000 to nearly $1 million. The High Country Regional Council was proud to see Lake County, Colorado later recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a 2019 “Culture of Health Prize” winner, with specific mention of LCBAG’s impactful work in the community.
Unique to the Northwest region is its changing economic landscape. By 2028, all three coal-fired power generating units and coal mines in Moffat County will shut down permanently. The closure of these units impacts the economic security of the Northwest region, causing the community to address the county’s economic transition and development.
In Fall 2019, the Northwest Regional Council recommended a $25,000 grant for community planning, directed to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Colorado as the fiscal sponsor, to focus on the transition away from a coal-centered economy in Moffat County. The Council then partnered with Keystone Policy Center through a $22,000 regional council grant to fund the creation of a strategic roadmap, which provides actionable recommendations and guidance for the development of a community-driven, coordinated process to direct the region’s economic transition.
Following the completion of the strategic roadmap, through DOLA grants, and an additional $67,000 grant from El Pomar, the City of Craig hired an Economic Development Manager to support this project and the community’s transition.
The reach of El Pomar’s regional councils and the unexpected network it creates across Colorado is another unique feature of the program. In 2022, a chance encounter at El Pomar’s Statewide Meeting — an annual convening of council members from across the state — led to an opportunity for Unify America, a Denver-based organization dedicated to enhancing civic dialogue and discourse to solve challenging problems, to bring its programs and resources to the community of Montrose, creating Unify Montrose.
Unify America’s founder, Harry Nathan Gottlieb, was the keynote speaker for the 2022 Statewide Meeting. During a networking reception, Gottlieb struck up a conversation with San Juan Regional Council members from Montrose and was impressed by their bipartisan nature and passion for their community.
At the time, Gottlieb was looking for a community to run Unify America’s first Citizen’s Assembly, which he hoped would replace political contentions with problem-solving at a local level. Montrose fit the criteria for this project and, to complement this, community members and the San Juan Regional Council were excited to champion it. In late 2023, a group of citizen delegates, the “Assembly,” held a comprehensive 12-week process deliberating over the issues, identifying and refining actions, budgeting, assessing, and planning. Delegates and community members are now leading the way and creating an entity to address their community’s needs. Regional Partnerships creates a space for many unexpected and valuable connections that create ripple effects throughout communities.
Our Gratitude to the People Behind Regional Partnerships
At the heart of El Pomar’s Regional Partnerships program are the council members whose commitment and local experience make it possible. As we reflect on 20 years of this groundbreaking program, we recognize their service has fundamentally shifted and improved the impact of El Pomar’s grant making and we are privileged to benefit from the invaluable counsel they provide. In addition, El Pomar Trustees, staff, and Fellows play a critical role in supporting the work of the councils. Over the program’s history, more than 230 council members, 17 Trustees, 28 staff, and 190 Fellows have supported Regional Partnerships.
Our special thanks to Cathy Robbins, the architect of Regional Partnerships, who joined the Foundation in 2003 to develop the program and led it for more than 16 years. To help commemorate these two decades we have interviewed and featured long-standing council members throughout the year in our Regional Partnerships newsletter.
