The Colorado Health Foundation has developed the following health and safety guidelines for our staff and office guests related to coronavirus (COVID-19). As a foundation working statewide to improve health, we are deeply committed to ensuring our grantees, partners and staff are equipped to stay healthy during this rapidly evolving public health threat.
We want to assure our grantees and partners that limiting in-person meetings during the next few weeks will not affect existing funding agreements.
We are looking into ways we may be able to support the nonprofit sector as many organizations grapple with how to continue delivering critical services to communities across Colorado and work to address the inequities of pandemics during this public health emergency. Look for more from us on this soon, and feel free to share your ideas with me or Amy Latham, vice president of philanthropy.
In an effort to take every precaution and prioritize health and safety, the Foundation has put in place the following guidelines that may affect you:
- Foundation employees who are sick (e.g., respiratory illness symptoms and/or fever) or living with sick individuals are required to stay home and may work remotely as needed.
- The Foundation’s office is currently open. However, the office may close if there are local outbreaks or if school districts close, in which case we will notify our mailing list and social media followers immediately. We are actively adhering to the interim CDC guidance for the workplace, including cleaning and disinfection measures.
- We ask that any Foundation guests who are symptomatic or have recently traveled to CDC-listed Level 2 or 3 countries (currently China, Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea) not visit our office at this time.
- If you are hosting an event at the Foundation, you will receive information that asks guests who may be symptomatic or who have recently traveled to CDC-listed Level 2 or 3 countries to refrain from visiting our offices.
- All site visits for our February grant cycle will take place only by phone or Zoom video conferencing, rather than in person. If you are a current applicant with a site visit planned, you will be contacted by our staff to determine how to have the meeting virtually and to provide Zoom resources as needed.
- Foundation staff are not allowed to engage in any in-state travel outside of the Denver metro area through April 3. If this impacts you, you will be contacted to discuss alternative solutions.
We hope these guidelines make sense given the current state. If you have feedback or questions about information in this email feel free to send your comments directly to Taryn Fort, senior director of communications.
In good health,
Karen McNeil-Miller
President & CEO