Colorado Springs Health Foundation outlines 10-year grantmaking, $246 million asset high

Kari Davis, executive director of the Colorado Springs Health Foundation, reviewed the foundation’s 10-year history and approach to grantmaking at the City Council work session on July 27. Davis said the foundation was established with proceeds from Memorial Health System’s lease to UCHealth and noted voters endorsed the arrangement by “more than 80% of the electorate.”

Davis provided financial snapshots: “as of the end of June, we were at an all time high of that total asset value at about $246,000,000,” and the foundation has made roughly 1,000 grants totaling about $60,000,000 since inception. She said the board follows a council-established maximum payout rule of 5% of the 12-quarter average asset base to preserve the corpus in perpetuity and that the foundation expects to distribute just under $9,000,000 in grants for 2026.

The presentation described six funding priorities — led by health-care access, trauma prevention/healing, suicide prevention, food and physical activity, and, more recently, transitional and affordable housing. Davis said roughly half the foundation’s dollars go to health-care access and, when combined with trauma-related clinical grants, “you’re getting upwards of 65, 70% of our total dollars going out.”

Council members asked about year-to-year variations and the use of multi‑year grants. Davis said annual award totals can spike when the foundation counts multi‑year awards in the initial award year even though payouts are paid across subsequent years, and that the foundation favors transparency and evaluation through grant final reports, site visits, and a third‑party Impact Assessment Project.

The presentation closed with board acknowledgments and a pledge to continue tracking impact and partnering with local service providers.