Rural Philanthropy Days Expected To Return Next Year With Improvements

By Tatiana Flowers

Since 2017, Arkansas Valley Community Cancer Support Group had been providing cash, food, wigs, gas cards and hotel rooms to people with cancer and their caregivers until the COVID-19 pandemic hit Colorado in March 2020.

When the Pueblo West nonprofit paused all fundraising events for two years to help stem the spread of the disease, its leaders struggled to help clients afford services.

The organization found financial support after CEO Carrie Holm attended an event that connects philanthropic organizations to rural nonprofits statewide.

“That was crucial,” Holm said. “Without donations, sponsorships and grants, we couldn’t help anybody.”

Holm attended Rural Philanthropy Days® in 2023 in La Junta. The Community Resource Center, a Denver-based nonprofit, started the Rural Philanthropy Days program in 1990 when it launched as a single-day event in Mesa County. Since then, the event has become a multiday conference held twice yearly in one of eight regions across the state.

Carrie Lynn Holm, CEO of the Arkansas Valley Community Cancer Support Group, speaks at a fundraiser planning meeting on April 18, 2025, in her Pueblo West home. Photo by Mike Sweeney/Special to The Colorado Trust

“Most of the funders’ offices are in the Denver area, and those philanthropic organizations come to rural parts of the state during the conference to see the opportunities, innovations and solutions communities have put in place,” said Katy Sawyer, Community Resource Center’s director of capacity building.

Funders don’t give out money at the event itself but participate to create connections, strengthen relationships and provide future grant funding to nonprofits. Small nonprofits, many of which have annual operating budgets of less than $2 million, attend the conference, and only those in the region where the event is being hosted are eligible to participate.

In 1989, Colorado’s private funders only gave 3% of their grant dollars to groups outside the Front Range, according to the Anschutz Family Foundation, which partnered with the Community Resource Center to start Rural Philanthropy Days. In 2017, more than 20% of funding went to rural nonprofits.

Rural nonprofits often face more challenges raising money than urban nonprofits. They tend to have smaller budgets, fewer staff members and higher turnover among employees.

Research has shown that rural areas nationwide receive about 7% of funding distributed by philanthropic organizations, even though these areas comprise 14%-20% of the population.

To help address that gap, Rural Philanthropy Days are usually held in June and September each year, but the conference is on hiatus for 2025. Instead, the Community Resource Center is hosting eight rural convenings across the state from May to September for nonprofit leaders and local officials to help find ways to improve the conference, Sawyer said.

Rural Philanthropy Days is expected to reconvene in 2026. Tickets for the June conference will go on sale in April 2026, and tickets for the September conference will go on sale in August.

The Valley Community Cancer Support Group received a $5,000 grant from The Colorado Trust in late 2023 after Holm attended Rural Philanthropy Days. The Trust has awarded grants to more than 150 organizations over the last 15 years. The foundation typically distributes five or six grants per event, each for $5,000 to $6,000, according to Program Manager Francis Cheung.

The money the Arkansas Valley Community Cancer Support Group received helped provide services to about 25 people living with cancer in the tiny towns the support group serves, including Fountain, Fowler, La Junta, Manzanola, Rocky Ford and Swink.

“I’m hoping [the families served] got the support and camaraderie they needed and maybe even the desire to help organizations like mine do fundraising for other cancer patients who might need the same help,” Holm said.

Mariah Quick, a client of the Arkansas Valley nonprofit, cared for her husband after he was diagnosed with angiosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. The couple, who lived in Cheraw in Otero County, had to travel almost three hours to Denver multiple times per week for chemotherapy and radiation.

The cancer support group gave Quick money for gas, food and medical expenses while her husband was sick.

AJ Quick died in January after the cancer spread throughout his body, his wife said.

“When someone is diagnosed with cancer, a lot of people are there to help at first,” Mariah Quick said. “But life moves on and people kind of forget. Not everybody continues to be there—but the cancer support group was.”

Tracy Woodson poses for a photo on April 11, 2025, at Runyon Lake in Pueblo, holding up a photograph of her late husband Phil Amos. Amos died in 2018 from chronic myeloid leukemia. Photo by Mike Sweeney / Special to The Colorado Trust

Tracy Woodson’s experience as a caregiver for her husband, Philip Amos, was similar. She stayed at UCHealth Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo for more than 30 days while her husband was receiving treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia, a blood cancer.

The lengthy hospital stay made it difficult for Woodson to afford necessities. The cancer support group gave her money for food and washed her clothes while she was at the hospital, more than an hour’s drive away from her La Junta home at the time.

After Amos died in 2018, the group helped Woodson pay for his funeral expenses. Now, she volunteers with the group.

“They gave me support, which lessened my load, so I could help him,” Woodson said. “I saw what they did for me, and him as a patient, and I wanted to give back.”

In 2024, the Children’s Specialty Clinic of the San Luis Valley, located in Monte Vista, received two Colorado Trust grants, including one from Rural Philanthropy Days. The funding will help the organization hire staff, host fundraising events and provide treatment to young San Luis Valley children who have complex physical and behavioral health needs from developmental trauma, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disabilities and in-utero substance exposure.

Elizabeth Cohn-Mix, executive director of the Children’s Specialty Clinic, said the program is expected to begin operating by September and will likely serve 10-15 children. Otherwise, parents have to drive to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver for evaluations and often face two-year wait lists.

“Having a space here in the valley, so parents don’t have to drive four hours to Denver to get the diagnoses and services needed for their kids, will be an invaluable resource,” she said.

Cohn-Mix said the clinic will also open at a time when schools and health care providers are seeing an increased need for children’s specialty services. There are 1,586 children in San Luis Valley school districts who qualify for special education services, she said.

At the convenings this year, Community Resource Center leaders plan to meet with people and organizations in all 53 rural and frontier communities statewide to understand the changing needs of people in those areas.

“At Rural Philanthropy Days in 2026, we hope to see a conference that reflects a broader, more inclusive range of voices, moving beyond the familiar attendees to ensure that all leaders in rural communities have a seat at the table,” Sawyer said.

The staff of Community Resource Center in Creede, Colo. at the 2015 Southwest Rural Philanthropy Days. Photo by Rachel Mondragon