Our Strategy, Programs and Progress
As we embarked on our most recent strategic planning process, an historic confluence of events -- a global health pandemic, an economic crisis, unprecedented wildfires and a reckoning with racial injustice -- compelled us to think critically and carefully about the evolving needs of our members. Our board and staff spent several months engaged in a process focused on listening to you, our members, as we developed a new roadmap to guide our work into the future. Find more details on the process here.
(Please click image to see our roadmap)
Philanthropy Colorado Equity Committee
The Equity Committee was established to help guide Philanthropy Colorado in its work to improve its own internal practices and to support our role in advancing equity efforts by member organizations through learning, sharing and collaboration. The Equity Committee provides thought leadership and practical advice on how Philanthropy Colorado can best provide resources, tools and programs to help members through all stages of their equity journeys and to advance equity as an outcome for Colorado. The Equity Committee is composed of Philanthropy Colorado board and member representatives who contribute their passion, professional expertise and lived experiences to this critical work
Equity Committee members:
Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, Co-Chair | Rose Community Foundation
Ellen Sandberg, Co-Chair | PNC Bank
Chris Bui | The Colorado Health Foundation
Sara Craig-Scheckman | Craig-Scheckman Family Foundation
Renee Ferrufino | Women's Foundation of Colorado
Morris Price | The Colorado Trust
Joy Sullivan | United Way of Larimer County
Equity-focused Learning Opportunities
Philanthropy Colorado hosts a variety of programs and learning exchanges that offer members opportunities to increase their understanding about equity issues.
A partnership with ABFE, for example, has allowed us to offer comprehensive racial equity trainings and workshops for staff and trustees of philanthropic organizations in our network. Several additional programs and trainings occur throughout the year and we will be offering a trust-based philanthropy and racial equity cohort for members later in 2023.
Many of our peer-led learning communities have incorporated an equity lens in how they learn and share about issues relevant to their focus areas and roles. See peer networks.
Here is a sampling of our many recent equity-related programs designed to be relevant to the broader field of Colorado philanthropy (visit our calendar of current and past programs for more information):
- Exploration into Participatory Grantmaking
- Advancing Diversity in Philanthropy: The Power of Pipelines
- The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (Keynote by bestselling author Heather McGhee)
- Trust-Based Philanthropy: Are we in it for the long haul? (One of several programs on this topic)
- Emerging Models for Creating a More Inclusive Economy in Denver and Colorado
- Building New Affordable Homes in Rural Colorado
- Exploring digital literacy and inclusion: What’s working and how we can build equitable communities
- Just Transitions for Colorado’s Coal Communities
- Reclaiming the Public Square: Trust, Media and Democracy in Post-Election Colorado
- Book Talk with Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law
Philanthropy Colorado is developing an Equity Playbook that captures our learning, activities, models and results in a single resource. We invite members to share in our journey and further their own equity journey by following along with us. Examples of what our members are doing to advance equity can be found here.