About
Mission
The mission of the Communities Lead Communities Thrive (CLCT) Coalition is to advocate for more equitable access to public funding by small nonprofits across Colorado.
We aim to ensure that Colorado’s nonprofit ecosystem equitably supports nonprofits serving historically excluded and underserved communities to have the resources to succeed and thrive.
Vision
We envision a Colorado where every community has equitable access to the support and resources necessary to prosper.
Through policy advocacy focused on strategic investments in community-serving nonprofits, technical support, and civic engagement, we aspire to support sustainable community-centered power-building to create a resilient and inclusive state where all individuals and families can achieve an enhanced quality of life.
Our History
In February of 2021, the Communities Lead Communities Thrive (CLCT) Coalition was imagined during impassioned conversations among BIPOC nonprofit leaders. Gathered together, they shared poignant stories of the glaring inequities in federal and state funding allocated for COVID-19 support to BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ communities. Billions of Federal dollars flowing into Colorado were failing to reach these communities. This disillusionment, borne from the recurrent exclusion of BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ communities from opportunities and essential funding, catalyzed the formation of the CLCT Coalition.
The CLCT eventually established a Steering Committee composed of the Asian Pacific Development Center, the Black Resilience in Colorado (BRIC) Fund, the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado, and Rocky Mountain Equality. The Steering Committee’, whose ‘s work culminated in the formulation of a policy and advocacy agenda that would drive the CLCT Coalition forward, championing equity and justice for all communities, ensuring that the voices of historically excluded communities were heard, valued, and supported.
During the 2022 legislative session, the CLCT coalition, comprised of over 50 organizations from across Colorado, successfully championed the passage of House Bill HB22-1356, creating a $35,000,000 Nonprofit Infrastructure (NPI) grant program in response to the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on small nonprofits across the state. In 2023, the CLCT Steering Committee played a critical role in partnering with the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) to ensure the implementation of this bill was consistent with the goal of ensuring small nonprofits that serve historically excluded and underserved communities across the state could access this funding opportunity to stabilize their operations. The NPI grant program provided necessary funding to help communities that experienced negative impacts caused by COVID-19 recover and rebuild.
Nearly 500 nonprofits across Colorado received grants from this grant program, including over 30 CLCT Coalition member organizations.
CLCT understands that nonprofits are a central support system for millions of Coloradans providing critical resources that fill the gap left by the government; CLCT’s leadership in passing and supporting the implementation of HB22-1356 is just the beginning of our work.