Daily Sentinel article by NATHAN DEAL

Nathan.Deal@gjsentinel.com

In a quarter-century of operation, the Western Colorado Community Foundation (WCCF) has grown exponentially, but only recently did it secure a space to reflect that growth.
The foundation, which focuses on connecting nonprofit organizations and causes with interested donors, ended 2022 with $145 million in managed assets and saw its managed assets increase 30% from the previous year. However, until late February, the WCCF was still operating in cramped quarters it had rented on the fifth floor of the Alpine Bank building downtown, often having to bust through walls and add more space ad hoc as it hired more staff.
The WCCF couldn’t even host its own board of directors meetings, as the board is composed of 16 members and the only meeting room the foundation had could only hold 12 people.
WCCF President and CEO Anne Wenzel said the WCCF finally began looking for a new space, determined it would need about 10,000 square feet, and considered building or renovating a space. Wenzel said the foundation was offered a couple of undeveloped sites by the Colorado River, adding to the activation of that area of town sparked by the Riverfront at Las Colonias and bolstered by the upcoming Riverfront at Dos Rios.

“That forced us to move forward with our process a little more quickly, trying to ascertain what kind of growth projection we were going to be on, how much money we have, how many grants we were going to make 10 years out, what kind of staffing needs we would have 10 years out, and then that would drive the space planning needs,” Wenzel said. However, after considering those riverfront opportunities as well as other opportunities along the city’s major arterial roads, the WCCF board decided that remaining in the downtown area made the most sense — and fortunately, the perfect space was about to become available catty-corner from its Alpine Bank space.

CENTER FOR PHILANTHROPY
The former Roper Music store at 128 N. Fifth St. was purchased about five years ago by Brian Collins, the president of Dallas-based Equus Capital. Collins gutted and renovated the space over the course of three years, transforming it into a desirable downtown space.
The WCCF eventually moved to lease space in the building, giving it 9,300 square feet of space on three floors. Now, the WCCF has 18 offices, four meeting rooms of various sizes and ample room for a variety of events such as donor gatherings, donor appreciation events, networking events, communication forums, fundraising training for nonprofit organizations, board meetings and community education events. It also features a “hotel office” space for visiting foundations and nonprofit leaders from the Front Range and around the state when they’re visiting town. The WCCF calls its new space its Center for Philanthropy.
“We’re close to the banks. We’re close to the accountants and lawyers. Our donors come downtown to do lunch and to do business. We’re right here in the heart of things,” Wenzel said.
“One day, we walked in this building and the basement and the main level were available for lease. That space wasn’t big enough, but we were very interested in the space and found out the second floor was going to free up, so we realized all of a sudden that the space was in a perfect location for us, it would be big enough once the tenant on the second floor moved out, and that’s when we got a feeling about this particular facility.”
The WCCF’s new digs feature all the trappings of modern offices while maintaining the character of downtown Grand Junction, with plenty of large windows allowing natural light to illuminate the center, televisions on the walls of meeting rooms, a modernized brick interior and pressed tin tiles gracing the ceilings.
“Once we decided we wanted to stay downtown and we found this lovely building, we realized how much the building characterized our organization,” Wenzel said. “We talk about being grounded in the past. The donors who helped start us and have left gifts and whose shoulders we stand on, that’s our foundation: grounded in the past, but modern and looking to the future; flexible and nimble to respond to current community needs. That’s what this organization does and we feel this building exudes that.”
Wenzel believes WCCF staff have already seen increase efficiency after moving into the Center for Philanthropy, reinventing their workflow and processes, converting to a new database and capitalizing on having proper meeting spaces. She also said the WCCF wants to create a public exhibit space on the ground floor that celebrates the foundation’s work and mission, acknowledges nonprofit organizations and declares monthly “nonprofits of the month”, and highlight the effectiveness of philanthropy on the Western Slope. This space might also include art-work that “celebrates the spirit of philanthropy and the spirit of giving.”
One reason the WCCF would include such an exhibit space is that, according to Wenzel, despite the foundation’s initiatives such as suicide prevention work and supporting Mesa County Valley School District 51’s Lunch Lizard program that provides meals to students in the summer, it still sorely needs more public visibility so it can be even more effective “One of our organizations, Taglines, is connecting people who care — our donors — with causes that matter, the great nonprofits working on issues from basic needs, housing and food, to services for at-risk youth and the elderly, arts and culture, the environment. We’re a connector. We’re a hub,” Wenzel said.
“We identify needs and we gather resources, which are usually cash but sometimes stock or real estate. People in the community who want to give back give us assets and then we direct that out in the form of grants and scholarships…. When people can see the impact of what their gift can do, they get more excited, they feel more engaged and, frequently, they’ll give more. Then it’s one big spiraling circle of growth and impact and giving back.”
WCCF Community Outreach Director Tedi Gillespie said that WCCF has tripled its managed assets since 2015, increasing from $50 million to about $150 million in an eight-year span. She said this increase essentially demanded that the WCCF find a more fitting, visible space.
“That just shows you the power of when you make impactful and strategic investments with your donors’ money, it does have the power to show people how you can potentially solve or at least address in a very meaningful way some of the issues like hunger,” Gillespie said. “The Lunch Lizard is a perfect example of an issue in the community with lots and lots of kids going without meals, especially when their school stops serving in the summer. To strategize and come up with a solution with our nonprofit partners is the beauty of coming together. Giving us more space gives us more room to grow, and as we grow, the investment in the community grows.”