This funding opportunity will support high-quality, high-impact youth programs that advance physical well-being programming that is holistic, culturally responsive and informed or driven by youth and their families. It will help to elevate the assets of youth and their families, so they have the agency and self-determination to make decisions related to good physical well-being that pull from their cultural background and experiences.
In alignment with the Foundation’s intent to advance health equity, proposals that center youth of color will receive priority consideration. We also seek to support programs that serve girls and girls of color, youth living with physical and/or developmental disabilities and youth who identify as LGBTQ.
We anticipate funding requests ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 over two years from youth-serving nonprofit organizations, government entities, schools and other youth-focused community collaborators that deliver age-appropriate physical well-being programs for youth in their communities.
Two funding pathways:
Scale
- Existing programs are already holistic, culturally responsive and informed/driven by youth and families. These programs are ready to scale and provide greater access and opportunities for our priority populations.
Capacity
- Programs are holistic, culturally responsive and informed/driven by youth/families, but need to deepen their practice and expertise to deliver impactful programmatic opportunities that best serve the needs of our priority populations.
Proposed programs must reflect the Foundation’s cornerstones. These outline who we serve, how our work is informed and our intent to create health equity.
Have questions? We’re here to talk through your ideas and encourage you to connect with us before applying for funding. Use this tool to connect with a program officer based on your area of interest or geographic area. Still have questions? Reach out to us by email or by phone at 303-953-3600.
Si necesita acceder la solicitud de fondos en español, por favor contáctenos a [email protected].
Click on the below accordion menu for additional detail on funding criteria to help prepare you for submitting a grant proposal.
To be considered for funding, programs must meet the following criteria:
- Alignment with the Foundation's cornerstones.
- Integrated: Programs take an integrated approach to both physical literacy and health education.
- Physical literacy encourages youth to move their bodies with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities in multiple environments that benefit the healthy development of the whole person.
- Health education supports youth in obtaining, processing and understanding the fundamentals needed to make health decisions that support good physical health.
- Youth and Family Driven: Programs must be deeply informed and driven by youth and can range from being youth-developed to creating spaces for robust youth and family input.
- Holistic: Programs address factors that create barriers to good physical health, such as confidence and self-efficacy. Programs intentionally build positive associations with physical activity and movement and other factors addressing body image and self-esteem.
- Culturally Responsive: Programs must be inclusive of participant’s cultural identity, language and traditions while leveraging youth's strengths and building on the assets of the communities served.
- Welcoming Environment: Programs create a welcoming environment for youth living at the intersections of their identities and lived experiences. Examples of a welcoming environment include:
- Youth-centered nondiscrimination statement
- Staff that reflects the identities of youth served by the program
- Language access in languages other than English
- Programs primarily focused on mentorship, leadership development, mental health, violence prevention, and other issues that don’t significantly center the physical health and physical wellbeing of youth
- Programs that do not require ongoing participation for a specific duration (e.g. drop-in programs)
- Programs focused on respite care only
- Programs centered on competition or whose primary outcome is focused on training toward individual athletic ability, progression and success
- Organizational staff training or development
Agency: refers to one's independent capability or ability to act on one's will.
Culturally responsive: an approach to viewing culture and identity as assets, including a person's race, ethnicity or linguistic assets, among other characteristics.
Developmental disability: refers to a diverse group of chronic conditions due to mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood.
Holistic: refers to the recognition of the whole person-physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual.
Intersectionality: the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
Physical disability: refers to a condition that substantially limits one or more basic physical activities in life.
Physical health: refers to understanding how your body works and developing habits that enhance your body's ability to function.
This body of work focuses on two components of physical health:
- Physical literacy (active lifestyle and physical fitness): the ability to move your body with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities in multiple environments that benefit the healthy development of the whole person.
- Health education (understanding health information): the ability of individuals to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions (e.g., choices about healthy diet and nutrition).
Physical well-being: refers to the state of your physical body and how well it is operating.
Self-determination: refers to each person's ability to make choices and manage their own life.
Self-efficacy: refers to an individual's confidence in their ability to complete a task or achieve a goal.
Youth of color: Arab/Middle Eastern, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Indigenous/Native American and multiracial.
We often partner with third-party evaluators, contractors and other organizations over the course of our work with applicants and grantees. Your application and its attachments may be shared with these individuals or entities during the review process and grant cycle. All third-party organizations partnering with the Foundation have signed a confidentiality agreement and will not use or share the information for purposes outside of the scope of work specific to the grant application or grant award. If you have any concerns or would like additional information, please email [email protected] or call our senior director of Grantmaking Operations at 303-953-3600.
We encourage all applicants to sign up in our grants portal to confirm registration is complete at least a week in advance of submitting a grant application.