A Look at the Adolph Coors Foundation’s Giving in Denver and Throughout Colorado

Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. Photo: Evan Meyer/shutterstock

Denver, Colorado is known as one of America’s great beer destinations, but there are some lessons about philanthropy to be learned between sipping craft brews in the shadow of the Rockies. The Adolph Coors Foundation carries on the legacy of the German-American Coors brewing family and is committed to making sure that Colorado remains a land of opportunity for anyone willing to work hard.

Here are some details about the Adolph Coors Foundation’s giving in the Denver area and throughout Colorado to guide local grantseekers.

Five main focus areas

The Adolph Coors Foundation has very specific funding areas that are quite well-defined. The foundation’s youth funding area supports mentoring, tutoring, character development, leadership, STEM education and financial literacy. For older Coloradoans, the foundation has an adult work program focus area that provides grants for job placement, vocational training and paid on-the-job training. Meanwhile, public policy grants address free enterprise, democracy, constitutional rights, personal responsibility, leadership and American values.

These three focus areas are open to unsolicited grant applications. However, the two other funding categories, entrepreneurship and integrative medicine, take requests by invitation only.

Specific grantmaking preferences

Within these focus areas, the Adolph Coors Foundation has even more specific preferences for what it likes to see in new grant requests. It commonly funds organizations that provide year-around programming, as well as direct service organizations and groups that have strong leaders paired with strong financial health. Bereavement, pregnancy centers and community centers are also priorities for this Colorado foundation.

A geographic split

Geographically, the Denver area and the Front Range region of Colorado are top priorities for the Adolph Coors Foundation. Over one-third of annual grants typically go to this region, with grant amounts ranging from $5,000 to $100,000. Yet the other parts of the state, especially rural areas, are also a focus. Rural Colorado grants tend to be a bit smaller in size (around $2,500 to $48,000 each) but tend to make up a larger percent of the generally smaller grantee organizations’ budgets.

Note that the foundation does not restrict itself to Colorado-based organizations. More than one-third of annual grants go to national organizations, and these grants are sometimes considerably larger—up to around $400,000.

Applying for a grant

The Adolph Coors Foundation awarded 146 grants totaling $7.7 million in a recent year. The foundation’s staff members have deep roots in Colorado and help drive the funder’s local work. The foundation has an accessible, online grant application process available through its website. Applicant programs and organizations must be in operation for at least a year to be considered by the Adolph Coors Foundation.

To learn more about this funder and how it gives, check out IP’s full profile of the Adolph Coors Foundation in our Mountain States funding guide.