Awarded over $14,800,000 to date!

    Grant Info

    grant

    Overarching Guidelines:  Successful grant requests will focus on specific discrete programs or projects that best:

    • Fall within Disabling Barriers’ mission statement
    • Fall within one of our six funding areas
    • Prioritize unmet needs of individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD)
    • Result in measurable impacts to individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD)
    • Are performance/outcome focused
    • Demonstrate program or project viability/sustainability
    • Prioritize requests that fund direct program costs
    • Discourage General & Administrative overhead expenses
    • We do not fund the purchasing of property or land.

    Eligible to Apply

    • The grant project/program must take place within and serve individuals residing in Southern Colorado, in accordance with our mission statement.
      • For applicants that are based in counties in Northern CO, you may still be eligible if the propensity of the grant request serves Southern CO and our core demographic. 
    • Organization is 501(c)(3) as designated by the IRS or State and local Government entities who serve our target population. This includes:
      • Recognized governmental entities including state, county, or city agencies that serve our target population
      • Educational facilities, such as K-12 public, private, or charter schools or school districts and higher education institutions

    Ineligible to Apply

    • For-profit organizations
    • Individuals
    • Candidates for political office or political organizations
    • Debt retirement
    • Endowments
    • Medical or scientific research
    • Sponsorships, tables, or tickets for events
    • Lobbyists

    Request Amount: For requests exceeding $100K, please contact us at info@disablingbarriers.org  so we can learn more about your organization and potential request.

    Timing:  Our grant cycle will open on July 1st, 2026 and close on July 31st, 2026.

    Deadline: All applications must be received before July 31st, 2026 at 6:00 pm MT for funding consideration.

    Review Period: All grant requests that meet the eligibility requirements will be considered for review in August/September.

    Notification: It is our goal to notify applicants of request decision by October, 31st 2026.

    Payments: Funds distributions are expected to be made in November, 2026 for the 2026 Cycle Awardees.

    Grant Lifespan: If awarded, the grant begins upon receival of funding, ie. in November following awardee notification and ends the subsequent November. Ex: November 2026-November 2027.

    Application Procedures:

    • Disabling Barriers (DB) will consider grant requests for the following grant types:
      • Programs (discrete projects)
      • Equipment only
      • Capital improvement requests (expanding, altering, or improving an existing space, does not include creating a new building)
    • An organization may only apply for one grant request type per cycle.
    • All grant requests must align with our organization’s mission statement and ideally will fall into one of our six funding areas (please note that listing an alternate focus area is an option within the application, should your request align with DB’s mission, it will be considered equally).
    • Please note that we do not require a Letter of Intent, as such, an applicant has full access to the application immediately and can do so by following the steps below.
    • For all requests, regardless of grant request type, any line items that exceed $10,000, please be prepared to provide 2 separate bids/estimates (from different vendors for each item exceeding $10K) in your application.
      • If you cannot provide 2 bids, or the item exceeding $10K is specialized and/or “one of a kind”, this will simply need to be explained.
    • When it comes to the request of separate bids/estimates and your request is part of a larger project, you will need to separate out the line items that are relevant to the specific Disabling Barriers request for Board review.
      • Attaching large documents that showcase multiple items, slows down our volunteer Board in assessing the request and related information, successful requests will take this into consideration to ensure the request is easier to understand and review.
    • Please contact us if you have questions about General and Administrative cost (a.k.a. overhead cost) limitations.

    How to Apply:
    Step 1: Go to our online grant portal via this link
    Step 2: You will need to create an account unless you already have one, then you will login
    Step 3: Pay close attention to all required questions and feel free to reach out to us at info@disablingbarriers.org if you have any questions (please note responses may take up to 2 business days).

    If you have any questions, or would like to schedule a Grant Information Chat, please email us at info@disablingbarriers.org

    For frequently asked questions, please download the FAQ sheet below which also has our Grant Boundaries Map.

    Download FAQ