Bonfils-Stanton Foundation awards $90,000 in funding to 18 organizations

Bonfils-Stanton Foundation announced funding to 18 new grantees. Each grantee has been awarded $5,000 in unrestricted grants for a total of $90,000. The pilot program will support arts and culture organizations that are led by and serve historically marginalized individuals.

The Foundation had originally planned to fund 10 organizations under this initiative, but in response to the current COVID-19 crisis, decided to fund all applicants.

“Bonfils-Stanton Foundation knows that a diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone and none of that happens without a focus on equity,” says board member and founder of The Equity Project, Dr. Nita Mosby Tyler. “Equity starts and stops with our ability to play a role in making sure organizations and the people in them have what they need to thrive.”

The initiative is a result of the listening sessions conducted in early 2019 with smaller ALAANA (African, Latinx, Arab, Asian, Native American) and LGBTQ arts organizations and those serving the disability community. The sessions — facilitated by Erin Yoshimura of Empowerful Changes — helped guide Bonfils-Stanton Foundation in determining how to best support the organizations.

The Foundation created a simple application to learn how organizations would use the $5,000 grant, with the responses ranging from purchasing equipment to supporting the cost of staff and general operating support. A grant report will not be required, but the Foundation hopes to engage the recipients in a dialogue next year to help refine the grantmaking process and better equip groups with what they need most from the program.

“These grants are just one element of the Foundation’s work around equity, and also just one component of our response to the crisis COVID-19 has created for the cultural sector,” says Gary Steuer, the Foundation’s president and CEO. “I am especially pleased that in light of the crisis we were able to quickly respond and nearly double the funding allocated to this initiative, funding every applicant.”

DEI Opportunity Awarded Grants:

• Arts Streets @ YEA
• The Bennie L. Williams Spiritual Voices
• Chicano Humanities & Arts Council, Inc.
• Colorado Celebration of African American Arts and Culture
• Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (Dragon 5280)
• Colorado Fine Arts Association
• Colorado Korean Chorus
• Denver March Powwow, Inc.
• Fiesta Colorado, Inc.
• Filipino-American Community of Colorado
• Flamenco Fantasy Theatre, Inc.
• Harmony: A Colorado Chorale
• Latino Cultural Arts Center
• Mile High Freedom Bands
• Rocky Mountain Arts Association
• Tesoro Cultural Center
• Tunas Mekar, Inc.