Strategic Learning & Impact Assessment

The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation invests in equitable arts and culture organizations and nonprofit leaders to cultivate a thriving and just Denver. As the city’s leading private arts funder, the Foundation has distributed more than $90 million in grants since 1981.

At a pivotal moment in its evolution, the Foundation sought to reflect on its strategic framework and better understand how its investments were shaping the broader arts and culture ecosystem.

In partnership with artist and strategist Ron Ragin, CSC guided a strategic learning and mid-course assessment grounded in the lived experience and cultural knowledge of diverse community partners. Rather than treating evaluation as a technical exercise, we approached it as an opportunity to strengthen relational trust, surface ecosystem-level insight, and align capital strategy with long-term impact.

Through facilitated dialogue, participatory inquiry, and deep listening, we helped the Foundation:

• Reweave relationships across grantees and stakeholders
• Surface diverse cultural logics shaping the local arts ecosystem
• Identify where strategy, resources, and community aspirations were aligned — and where fragmentation persisted
• Clarify opportunities to shift from programmatic impact toward ecosystem stewardship

The process strengthened the Foundation’s capacity to act not only as a grantmaker, but as a catalyst for systems change — aligning its investments with the relational, cultural, and structural conditions necessary for organizations and leaders to thrive.

This engagement reflects CSC’s commitment to cultivating both the leadership driving innovation and the ecosystem conditions that allow that leadership to flourish — supporting a more resilient, equitable arts and culture landscape in Denver.