Funding Priority

Caring for Pueblo County

Purpose

Elevating the power of people and place to create equity in health, well-being, and opportunity for Pueblo County’s children, youth, and their families.

Why We Care

Our place-based philanthropy approach is guided by local community wisdom and expertise. We recognize that innovative approaches to resolving increasingly complex issues must be led by people who can use their lived experience to make important decisions that affect the lives of their family, friends, and neighbors, both today and in the future.

Through our Caring for Pueblo County priority, we:

Partner with a local Community Advisory Board to provide grant funding from the Sperry S. and Ella Graber Packard Fund for Pueblo to organizations that serve Pueblo County
Maintain a Caring for Colorado office in Pueblo County with dedicated local staff
Lead and invest in local leadership development and nonprofit capacity-building efforts
Serve as culturally responsive facilitators, connectors, partners, and learners
Aim to address historic power imbalances in the funder-grantee relationship through practices such as trust-based philanthropy and participatory grantmaking

Our Approach

Guided by community wisdom and expertise and rooted in a deep love and appreciation for the people and places in Pueblo County, we invest in and support our partners in three primary ways:

Responsive Grantmaking: Children, Youth, and Families

To advance equity for children, youth, and their families in Pueblo County, annual funding opportunities will be available in four focus areas:

Basic Needs
Social and Emotional Well-Being
Behavioral Health
Economic Stability & Advancement

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Nonprofit Capacity Building

To strengthen nonprofit capacity and cross-sector connectivity that leads to greater organizational and community-wide impact, we primarily fund:

Executive coaching for new nonprofit executives
Targeted cohort learning experiences
Organizational capacity-building needs
Opportunities that build relationships between grantees and connections with other funders

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Youth Leadership and Grantmaking: Pueblo Youth Action Council

To promote community engagement and leadership among Pueblo youth, students involved in the Pueblo Youth Action Council learn about philanthropy and local issues by fundraising and managing their own grant opportunity over the course of the school year.

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Contact our Team

Gina Lopez Ferguson

Director of Place-based Philanthropy

Email Gina

Our Community Advisory Board

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Our History

For nearly five decades, the Packard Foundation funded a wide range of agencies, projects, and programs that enhance the lives of Pueblo’s children and families. While funding was not limited to specific priorities, the Foundation funded work that complemented or supported the issues David and Lucile Packard cared most about – the environment, children and family support, and access to reproductive health.

Today, the Packard Foundation no longer carries out direct grantmaking in Pueblo. In April 2019, the Packard Foundation together with Caring for Colorado, launched the new Sperry S. and Ella Graber Packard Fund for Pueblo, an endowment established with a $20 million one-time grant to Caring for Colorado’s Centennial Fund.

This fund was created to ensure the needs and priorities of the Pueblo community were carried out by the people closest to the issues. Named after David Packard’s parents, the fund is now managed entirely by Coloradans through Caring for Colorado.