Animal Friends Alliance

Animal Friends Alliance provides comprehensive companion animal resources, services, and education to the community to prevent homelessness and promote the human-animal bond. Its vision is that all companion animals experience a healthy home where they are wanted, cared for, and loved. Animal Friends Alliance is accomplishing this by providing services aimed at keeping pets in their loving homes and out of shelters, such as our subsidized, community veterinary care, our pet food pantry, a community cat program, affordable canine behavior services, and more. We also provide sheltering and adoptions for dogs and cats. Animal Friends Alliance provides services to more than 15,000 cats and dogs each year, ending suffering and needless euthanasia of beloved companion animals.

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies conserves birds and their habitats through an integrated approach that includes science, education, and land stewardship. It envisions a future where birds remain abundant—supporting healthy landscapes and inspiring curiosity and love of nature. Based in Fort Collins, the Education Team creates meaningful, bird-centered outdoor experiences for people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. Its work spans from the Rockies to the Great Plains and beyond, strengthening bird populations, improving habitat, and enriching lives.

How it advances its mission:

• Applies biological and social science to guide conservation
• Engages communities to inspire place-based action
• Builds resilient landscapes that support wildlife and human values
• Partners to solve conservation challenges at scale
• Strengthens the organization for long-term leadership and impact

BridgeWell Foundation

The goal of the BridgeWell Foundation is to enable physical and mental wellness across Northern Colorado by helping to fill the gap between available resources and the needs of the community. It achieves this through supporting community wellness programs, hosting fundraising events for local projects and programs, and pursuing projects related to wellness in the community. Whether assisting cancer patients with medical copays, helping veterans successfully reintegrate into civilian life, purchasing AEDs for community use, or supporting countless other individuals and programs, you can trust in its commitment to making a difference to those in greatest need across Northern Colorado.

Town of Akron

The Town of Akron is a small rural community on Colorado’s Eastern Plains committed to responsible stewardship, local opportunity, and preserving a strong quality of life for current and future generations. It does this through two different funds:

• The Akron Cemetery Fund supports the long-term care, maintenance, and preservation of the community’s cemetery, which serves as an important historical and cultural asset. Through responsible stewardship and planned investment, the fund helps ensure the cemetery remains a respectful, accessible, and well-maintained space for families, residents, and future generations.
• The Marge Lesher Brandon Entrepreneurial Spirit Fund supports entrepreneurship and economic opportunity within the Town of Akron. The fund addresses the challenge of limited resources available to support new ideas, small businesses, and community-driven initiatives in a rural setting. By investing in people and ideas that encourage innovation, self-sufficiency, and local enterprise, the fund helps strengthen Akron’s economy and support long-term community vitality.