Gap-Filler and Connection-Maker: The Ideal Grantee

I’ve now spent about a year and a half getting to know the Denver philanthropic and non-profit community, and in these seventeen months, one of my greatest takeaways is that this sector is about gaps and those who have stepped in to fill them. With each meeting, visit, and new connection, I leave equally inspired by the incredible gap-filler organizations that exist to serve our local friends and neighbors and frustrated by the systemic failings that have formed such inequities in the first place.

In an ideal society, such chasms wouldn’t exist, and there would be no need for philanthropic organizations like ours or non-profits like the ones we fund. In practice, however, our systems have been broken for quite sometime, and the inequities left in the rubble of these machines become larger and more catastrophic each day. That is why we exist and is also why, as a funding organization, we seek to support the orgs that are taking up space and building bridges in the most efficacious and meaningful ways. This work takes innovation, creativity, and an immense amount of often thankless effort. To identify a communal shortcoming or failure and commit to remedying it is at the heart of all charitable work, and I, for one, am entirely grateful to those who are devoting their time, energy, and heart to this day in and day out.

But, I’ve also come to believe that philanthropic interconnectedness and interdependence are two additional “musts” when it comes to seeing our impact come to fruition. Since no true paradigm-shifting work has ever been done on an island, we, when reviewing our grant applicants, look for the connectors: those non-profits who refuse to go at it alone, but instead understand that we are always better together. It can be tempting to look at a broken system and think to ourselves, “I am the one who must singlehandedly dismantle and rebuild this. No one can fill in this gap quite like me.” The potential danger there, however, is that we saturate the space with so many well-meaning organizations trying to do the same essential work, but competing for very limited funding. Instead, the key to our collective success is both humility and collaboration. I have been thrilled to find that, for the most part, the non-profit sector has this in spades. One of my greatest joys as an Executive Director this year has been to discover the vast web of help, support, and impact among our grantees. No one is going at this alone.

So, as I reflect on the work of our grantees this year, gap-filling and connection-making become the through lines. I have had only just a second-hand look at the detrimental effects federal cuts had on charitable organizations, but even from a somewhat-outside perspective, I know the impacts are vast, which has made these characteristics even more vital. As we look toward 2026, with no idea what might await, we affirm our commitment to fostering connections where fitting and building bridges over systemic chasms where possible.

We Don’t Waste Mobile Food Market distribution in 2025. We Don’t Waste is one of the best gap-filler and connection-maker organizations we’ve come to know this year. More about them coming soon!