ULC December 2015 Partner Spotlight – The Denver Foundation
Urban Land Conservancy celebrates the achievements of its partnerships that create and preserve nonprofit facilities and affordable housing for communities in Metro Denver. ULC’s Monthly Partner Spotlight is awarded to partners who demonstrate the value of collaboration, furthering our mission to improve the lives of Denver area residents through our real estate investments and community assets.
Congratulations to our December 2015 Partner Spotlight of the Month: The Denver Foundation!
The mission of The Denver Foundation (TDF) is to inspire people and mobilize resources to strengthen our community. As Colorado’s oldest and largest community foundation, the Foundation helps people give back to Metro Denver in ways that are meaningful to them and to the community. TDF is incredibly successful in doing so through the following ways:
TDF stewards the Community Endowment to meet the changing needs of the community now and for generations to come. The Community Endowment is made up of gifts from thousands of donors over the course of the Foundation’s history. Earnings from the endowment help local nonprofits through the Community Grants Program, Technical Assistance Grants, and the Strengthening Neighborhoods Program.
The Foundation currently assists Metro Denver individuals, families, and businesses accomplish their charitable goals by helping them design personalized charitable giving strategies and establishing customized, flexible donor funds. They currently manage more than 1,000 charitable funds giving donors the power of a private foundation without the administrative burdens. The Foundation offers expertise and experience in family philanthropic planning, provided free of charge or obligation.
TDF works with community and philanthropic leaders to address the core challenges that face Metro Denver.
For the past 20 years, TDF has been led by a true visionary who has helped to grow the Foundation significantly. When David Miller was hired, TDF had $58 million in assets, six staff, a few dozen charitable funds, and awarded $2 million in grants per year. Today, the Foundation has over $740 million in assets, 42 staff, more than 1,000 funds, and last year it granted more than $67 million. Under David’s leadership, the Foundation started the Strengthening Neighborhoods Program, the Inclusiveness Project, over 60 different types of scholarships, and countless other philanthropic efforts. David leaves the Foundation in great shape at the end of this year to start an exciting new Institute for Philanthropy and Social Enterprise at the University of Denver in 2016.
As a founding Board member of ULC, David’s leadership and expertise in the nonprofit community provided the needed foundation from which ULC could grow. In 2004 ULC became a supporting organization of TDF because of David’s commitment to improving communities and understood the important role that real estate plays in improving the lives of residents, the health of neighborhoods and creating opportunities for all residents in the Denver region to have a high quality of life. Since David began as a founding Board member, ULC has grown from a $10 million organization to almost $70 million through real estate investments that directly benefit neighborhoods and communities.
“The Urban Land Conservancy is an invaluable partner in Metro Denver, working in partnership with different sectors to ensure that resources such as schools and affordable housing are accessible to even the most vulnerable residents,” explains David Miller, President & CEO of The Denver Foundation. “The staff of ULC juggle multiple complex real estate transactions to address complex social challenges, and are successful because they do all of this with a goal of improving people’s lives.”
As a strong partner, TDF is working with ULC to support strategic investments that address the key focus areas that the Foundation works to address. TDF has demonstrated their support of real estate preservation and development in metro Denver’s low-income communities through investments in two key resources: the Regional Transit Oriented Development Fund and a facility fund managed by Calvert Foundation as part of the Metro Denver Ours to Own Initiative.
Aaron Miripol, ULC President & CEO states, “The Denver Foundation, through the leadership of David Miller, created the strong foundation necessary for ULC’s success in our ability to invest in real estate. The strong partnership we have with TDF is demonstrated through their investments into ULC’s work in equitable real estate development and preservation of community assets in Metro Denver. These investments are critical to our success in improving communities and strengthening neighborhoods.”
After ULC successfully proved out the country’s first Transit Oriented Development Fund, increasing the amount of affordable housing at existing and future transit stations, the Fund has now grown from a $15 million Denver Fund to a $24 million regional Fund. The Denver Foundation is an investor in this critical resource, and their investment allows affordable housing developers to preserve existing housing that is at risk of losing affordability or develop new affordable housing on land acquired using the Fund. Over 1000 units of housing will be preserved and developed through this Fund, as well as hundreds of thousands of square feet of community and commercial space.
The Denver Foundation is also an investor in a new Facility Fund, managed by Calvert Foundation as part of their Ours to Own Initiative. Ours to Own allows anyone to invest in their own community for as little as $20, earning a return on their investment while seeing a social return as well. This fund was created for the purpose of acquiring real estate assets that provide affordable commercial and community space for nonprofits as well as affordable housing in the Denver region. ULC will fully expend this $10 million Fund by the end of 2015, and TDF’s investment was instrumental in this unique resource growing to a full $10 million source of capital which will preserve over 100,000 square feet of commercial space, over 80% of which is occupied by nonprofits, as well as land for a mixed-use development that will include affordable housing and commercial space.
Through targeted investments made in partnership with ULC, The Denver Foundation supports the development of new permanently affordable housing, affordable space for nonprofits and community facility creation, all accessible by metro Denver’s existing and expanding transit system. Congratulations to The Denver Foundation and David Miller for your long standing commitment to improving communities and supporting the Denver region, bringing opportunities for education, good jobs, housing and all services that residents need for success!
For more information about The Denver Foundation, please visit www.denverfoundation.org