Chinook Fund

Each time you support Chinook Fund, you are investing in community-led solutions, statewide impact, and hope. Make a gift towards our spring campaign at: chinookfund.org/donate-now..
Thank you for your solidarity in mobilizing resources for social justice organizations across Colorado!

Join us in supporting organizations like Indigenous Wellbriety! As part of Chinook Fund's spring campaign, we are inviting those that are able at this time to make a gift of any amount meaningful to you to support grassroots, social justice organizing. www.chinookfund.org/donate-now.
Indigenous Wellbriety is a Native-led nonprofit located in rural Cortez, Colorado working toward a future where those in recovery and on the path to long-term sobriety have access to culturally rooted, community-based support. Using peer support and talking circles, their approach centers love, shared community, and collective healing for families and communities, acknowledging how historical and intergenerational trauma—particularly the impacts of boarding schools and missions—created cultural loss and deep wounds in Native communities..
Will you join in supporting organizations like Indigenous Wellbriety to ensure community-centered, healing resources continue to grow and flourish?

Helen Wolcott has seen Chinook Fund grow over many decades. Now in her late nineties, Helen, recently shared more about her relationship with Chinook Fund over the past 40 years..
"Chinook Fund played a large part in my involvement in movements and has been a real part of my education. My father had a long-standing charitable foundation, but it was very traditional. Chinook Fund empowered me on how to do things differently. All the education I got came from Chinook Fund and it's model. I kind of feel like a child of Chinook Fund. What inspires me about Chinook Fund is how they continuously involve the community in new and different ways. It's been like magic watching it grow and spread out.".
Helen first connected with Chinook Fund in 1989. She went on to join a grantmaking committee in 1992, served in various volunteer roles over the next three decades, participated in Chinook Fund's very first Giving Project cohort in 2016, and much more. Throughout the years, Helen has been a dedicated voice who recognizes the moral obligation and strategic importance of funding grassroots organizations. Thank you, Helen, for modeling the way our involvement in movements may ebb and flow over a lifetime!.
[Image ID: Three photos of Helen at Chinook Fund gatherings over the years.]

Meet Spring 2026 Giving Project cohort member Jodeen Olguín-Tayler! As the Program and Campaigns Director with CHANGE Philanthropy, Jodeen is leading the Level Up to CHANGE Philanthropy campaign; her work was spotlighted in Designing Tomorrow's podcast episode, Philanthropy Can Afford to Give More..
"At a time when we know that there are such immense needs for resources, we want to get the money into the hands of the organizations who are actually best positioned to make decisions about how the resource should be used and along what timeline. And so moving these resources aligned with the Level Up pledge in a way that puts those sorts of decisions into the hands of grantees is actually part of shifting the norms and culture of philanthropy that we want to see. We also support long-term, multi-year sustained giving so that when we have these inflection points and crisis points where there is an influx of resources that are needed, they can be deployed more flexibly and organizations know that they will have other sustained funding coming in over time so that they're really able to make strategic decisions." - Jodeen

Chinook Fund is so grateful to have a Board of Directors made up of grantee leaders and Giving Project alum. Thank you Melia, Matt, Reed, Dee, Emma, Jessica, and Anna for all that you do to support grassroots, community organizing across Colorado! .
[Image ID: Collage of profile photos of Chinook Fund's current board members, with Chinook Fund's tag line 'Change not Charity'.]

Join our email list to stay up to date with Chinook Fund and our grassroots leaders. Our monthly newsletter, Seed Notes, comes out the last Tuesday of each month. Sign up at https://chinookfund.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=c9f783ccac79d2f9f55a64710&id=96e327973f. .
[Image description: Group of grassroots leaders gathered together for a photo and a call to action to subscribe to Chinook Fund's monthly newsletter, called Seed Notes]

In celebration of AANHPI Heritage Month, we'd like to introduce you to two Chinook Fund grantees that are led for and by AANHPI community members..
Colorado Nepalese Community works to provide intergenerational opportunities to experience Asian Nepali heritage and traditions through cultural events, educational programs and community initiatives.
People's Advisory Board for New Educational & Economic Goodwill (PABNEEG) aims to construct a thriving Hmong and BIPOC community by addressing the underlying issues of poverty, racism, and discrimination and providing educational and economic assistance to those in need. .
[Image ID: Photo of each grantee's work in action, with their mission statement.]

Meet Radiance, a Spring 2026 Giving Project member! Radiance is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Denver, Colorado. As a vocalist, poet, and fabric artist, she is dedicated to preserving access to creative arts through music, creative writing, and textile art..
As the oldest of four and growing up in predominantly white environments, she carries the communal responsibility of caring for those around her and leading by example in the form of social justice and creating spaces where joy and rage and all of the complexities of the human experience can exist. This brought her to creative entrepreneurship and the non-profit space which reignited her passion to create and to grow her social and professional abilities and connect with the people and existing infrastructures who are doing the work to build a more equitable society..
Radiance is the Program Manager for , nonprofit organization that empowers BIPOC youth to find their voice, embrace their culture, become community leaders, and promote artistic expression and collective healing through poetry in the Denver metro area.

Meet Beverly Grant, a Spring 2026 Giving Project member! Beverly is a life-long Denverite and serial entrepreneur. She is a mother, influencer, educator, activist, urban farmer, small business owner, lobbyist, consultant, public speaker, and KGNU Public Radio Show Host. Beverly has dedicated her life to public service and to the greater good of her Denver community..
"The journey of the Giving Project has been a Blessing. I appreciate learning about the philanthropic culture of Chinook Fund and gaining some insight into the wonderful staff that support all the magic to happen! This is a busy time, but, in these times, it's important to "give" and stay connected." - Beverly.
Grant’s recent entrepreneurship includes co-founding Satya Yoga Cooperative and founding of Mo' Betta Green MarketPlace. The 16-year-old Mo’ Betta Green MarketPlace is a Black woman-owned, community-rooted organization cultivating food sovereignty, environmental stewardship, and collective well-being in Northeast Denver. Their mission is to create thriving spaces where residents reconnect with the earth, nourish their bodies and minds, and build local economies rooted in justice and equity. They do this through urban farming, farmers markets, community education, and cultural events that center Black and Brown leadership and heritage..
[Image ID: Photo of Beverly holding a basket of produce in a garden space.]

Our friends and peers at the AJL Foundation have been selected as a potential presenter at a major global impact conference, and they need our help to get there! Please consider voting for their session and sharing with your network. Voting ends April 26!

Institutional Capital & Impact Across the Portfolio - SOCAP Global How can more institutional investors align their entire portfolio for positive social and environmental impact? This session will explore innovative approaches to drive more institutional capital with positive impact across asset classes, highlighting the AJL Foundation as a case study, with example...