The Ballantine Family Fund awarded $310,000 in grants to 128 nonprofits across Southwest Colorado in 2019.
The Ballantine Family Fund awarded $310,000 in grants to 128 nonprofits across Southwest Colorado in 2019.Durango Herald file illustration

In 2022, trustees of the Ballantine Family Fund donated a record-breaking $334,500 to nonprofit organizations in Southwest Colorado through a quarterly grant application process, as well as additional Core Value grants.

This year marks the 66th year of the Ballantine Family Fund supporting Southwest Colorado organizations. Last year’s grant funding went toward arts and culture, education, human services, youth services, environment and animal protection.

The Family Fund gave $284,500 to 113 nonprofit organizations across Southwest Colorado through quarterly grant cycles. The average grant size was $2,518, an increase of 25% in the past three years. The counties served include Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, San Juan and locations outside Southwest Colorado with organizations that support the region.

One of the focuses of the family fund in 2022 was youth mental health, something greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ballantine family trustees awarded an unsolicited $50,000 in core value grants to support organizations tackling mental health issues in Southwest Colorado’s younger generations, in no small part by getting children “outside and engaged with one another and with the environment,” according to a news release from Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado. The core value grants support the Audubon Rockies organization, Montezuma Land Conservancy, Montezuma School to Farm and Southwest Open School, a charter school in Cortez that focuses on expeditionary, individualized learning.

A $20,000 planning grant also went toward a collaboration of four Southwest Colorado environment organizations with youth services, including La Plata Open Space Conservancy, Mountain Studies Institute, San Juan Mountains Association and Southwest Conservation Corps, which provides youth services that focus on project work and personal development.

By sector, the Ballantine Family Fund awarded:

$9,500 to animal protection (3% of total grants)$76,200 to arts and culture (27% of total grants)$48,600 to education (17% of total grants)$14,500 to environment (5% of total grants)$76,700 to human services (27% of total grants)$27,500 to youths (10% of total grants)$31,500 to other (11% of total grants)

By county, the Ballantine Family Fund awarded:

$26,500 to Archuleta (9% of total grants)$8,000 to Dolores (3% of total grants)$142,700 to La Plata (50% of total grants)$66,200 to Montezuma (23% of total grants)$15,100 to San Juan (5% of total grants)$26,000 to other counties that support Southwest Colorado, but are not located in the geographic region (9% of total grants)

(Courtesy of Ballantine Family Fund)
(Courtesy of Ballantine Family Fund)
The Ballantine Family Fund awarded $334,500 in grants to 128 nonprofits across Southwest Colorado in 2022.
The Ballantine Family Fund awarded $334,500 in grants to 128 nonprofits across Southwest Colorado in 2022.

Nonprofits seeking similar funding can submit grant applications online at BallantineFamilyFund.com. A full listing of the 113 nonprofit organizations that received the grants in 2022 can also be found on the website.

The Ballantine Family Fund was established in 1957 by Morley C. Ballantine and Arthur A. Ballantine Jr., former owners of The Durango Herald, to provide financial assistance to nonprofits that benefit Southwest Colorado. Richard G. Ballantine is president of the fund and chairman of the board of Ballantine Communications Inc., the parent company of the Herald.

The fund is intended to provide financial assistance to nonprofit causes that benefit Southwest Colorado.

“For more than six decades, the Ballantine family has been providing substantial resources for our region, and since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, I’ve witnessed the Trustees doubling down on their commitment to Southwest Colorado,” said Briggen Wrinkle, executive director of the Community Foundation and grants manager for the Ballantine Family Fund, in a news release. “The Trustees recognize the needs that have been exacerbated over the past three years and they are responding with even greater impact.”

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