DENVER, May 8, 2025—The Boettcher Foundation has unveiled its first cohort of 2025 Rural Catalyst Grant recipients, awarding $100,000 in capacity-building grants to nonprofit organizations within the Rural Leaders Collaborative. These awards empower creative projects designed to meet the distinctive challenges of Colorado’s rural communities.
“Rural Catalyst Grants this cycle exemplify the inventive spirit and rich diversity of rural Colorado nonprofits,” said Garrett Mayberry, grants program officer. “Recipients tell us that small, timely funding is essential for launching transformative work.”
Below is a summary of the organizations and projects awarded in this cycle:
- Community Builders: Community Builders, in partnership with the City of Leadville and Lake County, support community engagement and regional collaboration activities for the One Community Project. Working with local partners, this organization will help communities identify, design and implement strategies that respond to local needs and opportunities. (Lake County, $7,500)
- Telluride Institute: The Telluride Institute are planning and creating a Telluride Environmental Center, a hub for community members, organizations and stakeholders to come together and address environmental challenges. (San Miguel County, $5,000)
- Tabor Opera House: The Tabor Opera House Preservation Foundation have led a multi-phase restoration effort to save and restore the opera house as a community and economic development opportunity. This campaign will modernize the building’s infrastructure while preserving its historic character, positioning it as a vibrant arts and community hub for people to come together. (Lake County, $5,000)
- The Meeting Place: The Meeting Place provides a safe and supportive location for meetings, fellowship, educational activities, and social events for people, families and friends in recovery. They currently host approximately 30 meetings each week in their space. The grant will support technology upgrades to facilitate more hybrid meetings and trainings. (Garfield County, $5,000)
- Upstream Education: The Mental Health Changemakers Fellowship Program is a strategic initiative designed to equip educators with Tier 1 Mental Health tools and ongoing professional development to enhance student well-being. This grant will support the expansion of the fellowship into rural Colorado through new school district partnerships. (Statewide, $7,500)
- YouthZone: YouthZone provides comprehensive diversion, intervention, and advocacy services for justice-involved and at-risk youth in the Roaring Fork Valley. This grant will support convenings and strategic planning efforts with other organizations working in youth mental health and well-being. (Garfield County, $5,000)
- United Way Morgan County: The “Growing Together” program addresses the findings of UWMC’s Community Needs Assessment. Through Growing Together, the action team Child and Youth Action was formed to create an action plan and eliminate barriers like poverty, language access, immigration status and transportation. (Morgan County, $5,000)
- Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust: The Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust is committed to conserving the water, land, and way of life in the San Luis Valley. They plan to host a series of listening sessions that bring together key stakeholders to engage in meaningful conversations about the valley’s water needs, challenges, and opportunities. (Alamosa County, $5,000)
- The Space: With no comparable venue within a 75-mile radius, The Space fills a critical gap by providing both a physical and creative hub for the community. This grant will help hire a fundraising consultant to refine their strategy and develop actionable plans that will drive revenue and support their ongoing mission. (Yuma County, $5,000)
- Unify Montrose: Unify Montrose now facilitates structured civic deliberations to address complex local challenges. They plan to establish essential infrastructure and capacity for a structured, inclusive, community-driven deliberation on these issues. This grant will support facilitator trainings and compensation, providing community members with specialized skills in neutral facilitation. (Montrose County, $7,500)
- Custer County Tourism Board: Through a brick-and-mortar marketplace in downtown Westcliffe, Custer County Tourism aims to connect the agricultural producers of the Wet Mountain Valley directly with resident and tourist consumers. This grant supports the development of a business operations analysis for the marketplace. (Custer County, $5,000)
- Boys and Girls Club: The Boys and Girls club are starting a three- year strategic plan to increase capacity. The goal is to strengthen staff skills, increase retention and satisfaction, and enhance program consistency across all Club locations. This initiative is central to ensuring high-quality, stable Club experiences that ensure youth thrive. (La Plata County, $5,000)
- Education Foundation of Eagle County: The Education Foundation is the backbone agency for a collaborative of organizations focused on the social emotional learning needs of students in Eagle County. To improve youth mental health and reduce self-harm, the group provides program cross-training and evidence-based best practices that fill learning gaps in their schools. This grant will support a gap and needs analysis regarding behavioral health supports for Eagle County students to inform the collaborative’s strategic plan. (Eagle County, $5,000)
- Town of San Luis: The Town of San Luis is developing a culturally significant and universally accessible community center space that can serve as a hub for community events, youth activities, physical education, and social gatherings. This project is more than just a recreational space—it is an anchor for community engagement, youth development, and cultural identity. This grant assists with community outreach and planning efforts to inform the new facility. (Costilla County, $7,500)
- We Hate Exercise: We Hate Exercise (WHE) is a 12-week, science- based intervention designed by a clinical psychologist to motivate people to move their bodies and connect with supportive others. This grant supports a pilot partnership with mental health organizations in a rural Colorado community. WHE will focus on reaching individuals who are often excluded from mainstream mental health services, while enhancing the experiences of those already engaged in care. (Morgan County, $7,500)
- San Miguel Resource Center: The Advocacy Services Program provides free, confidential, crisis and supportive services, responding to the emotional, psychological and physical needs of domestic and sexual violence survivors and their children. They hope to build youth violence prevention programming in both the Norwood and West End school districts, and train West End community members as volunteer advocates. (San Miguel and Montrose County, $5,000)
- Genoa Hugo School District: Teacher shortages–often due to a lack of available housing for educators–have posed an ongoing challenge for the school district. With support of several community partners, the school district purchased and is renovating a triplex that can be used for teacher housing. This catalyst grant will support some of the final renovations needed to make the triplex ready for occupancy. (Lincoln County, $7,500)
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About the Boettcher Foundation:
The Boettcher Foundation believes in the promise of Colorado and the potential of Coloradans. We invest in people, programs, and organizations across the state to create a foundation for community building and transformational impact.
