Celebrating a Generous Gift to Our Campus for Mental Health

The University of Colorado Anschutz announced today that The Anschutz Foundation has generously awarded an amazing $50 million challenge donation to the campus, with Children’s Colorado receiving $25 million of this transformational gift.

This extraordinary gift brings The Anschutz Foundation’s lifetime giving to Children’s Colorado to $50 million. The challenge gift announced today aims to generate $200 million in funding from public and private partners to advance collaborative efforts across the campus to improve mental health care from childhood to geriatrics.

Since declaring a State of Emergency for youth mental health in 2021, Children’s Colorado has remained deeply committed to improving care models and expanding access to care for kids in crisis. The Anschutz Foundation’s investment validates our position as a national leader and empowers us to further collaborate with our campus partners to advance a more connected, compassionate system at a time when our community’s need has never been greater.

With this funding and in partnership with a new campus entity, the CU Anschutz Mental Health Collaborative, we will continue moving forward with our strategic plan to:

Prevent suicide. Our plan strives to save the lives of youth and reduce suicide in Colorado by developing, implementing, and continuously improving a system-wide, organizational approach to safer suicide care and prevention across our system of care and beyond.
Coordinate mental health care. Children’s Colorado aims to provide comprehensive support for families to facilitate a young person’s safe and successful re-entry from our care back to their home and community. Funding will expand services into primary care settings and schools.
Integrate mental health into primary care. Our plan will integrate behavioral health into primary care settings to improve access to services and enhance patient, family and care team outcomes.
Expand crisis care. Children’s Colorado is transforming patient care with expanded crisis services that will ensure rapid access to timely, effective care for patients and families during a mental health emergency.

The Anschutz Foundation’s belief and confidence in our mental health leadership and strategy helps us build a better future. Please join us in thanking The Anschutz Foundation for their generous and meaningful investment.