Great Outdoors Colorado’s (GOCO) Community Impact Program seeks to enhance a community’s quality of life and access to the outdoors through investments in capital infrastructure projects and the community-driven processes that inform them.
Donor Name: Great Outdoors Colorado
State: Colorado
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/01/2024
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
GOCO believes when partners work together with community members in project visioning and design, and when processes elevate unheard voices, outdoor connections are more impactful and communities become more cohesive and inclusive.
People and communities experience a multitude of benefits from an increased connectedness to the outdoors ranging from improvement to physical and psychological health, to diversified local economies, to educational impacts and more. Funding for the outdoors can also be a meaningful equity lever in Colorado – and a means to address issues of disparity and disproportionality. When developing local projects, they ask partners to consider the multifaceted benefits of outdoor recreation and outdoor education and advance the most needed and urgent projects that will serve the highest and best interests of their communities.
Through this program, GOCO invites partners to apply for funding to develop and revitalize parks, trails, school yards, fairgrounds, environmental education facilities, and other outdoor projects as identified and prioritized by the communities they serve. To facilitate project outcomes, applicants may request funding, as needed, for the following components:

Local capacity building through investments in existing staff, community members, and/or consultants
Community planning, organizing and collaboration to identify existing barriers to outdoor experiences and solutions for overcoming them
Land acquisitions
Site-specific, community-centered design
Storytelling, project communications, and celebrations.

Funding Information
GOCO will consider grant requests between $100,000 and $1,000,000, with consideration for requests outside that range on a case-by-case basis.
Eligibility Criteria

Colorado municipality or county
Title 32 special district eligible to receive distributions from the Conservation Trust Fund
Political subdivision of the State of Colorado that includes in its mission the identification, acquisition, or management of open space and natural areas
501(c)(3) non-profit land conservation organization that includes in its mission the identification, acquisition, or management of open space and natural areas, e.g., land trusts
Colorado Parks and Wildlife

For more information, visit GOCO.