Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation

Connections to overall health: increased diversity and prosperity in the oral health workforce, especially for bipoc oral health professionals, and increased access to care for economically disadvantaged communities and communities of color.

Access to health: creating systemic change and equitable advancement in the community. Influenced and informed policies that increase access to oral health care for community members. Developed a blueprint for future programs that can be replicated by other regions in Colorado.

Prevention: increased preventive care utilization, improving oral health, and tangibly integrating oral health within early childhood and maternal child health settings.

Discretionary and policy grants: Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation (ddcof) grantees served nearly 100,000 coloradans in 2023. Grantees reached ddcof's focus populations, particularly people of color, economically disadvantaged, and rural communities. In 2023, ddcof grantees reached 99,212 coloradans through a combination of workforce development, prevention, and access to care efforts. Grantees faced persistent challenges including workforce and capacity shortages, communication gaps among partners, barriers to accessing oral health care, and the need for additional funding. Despite these challenges, grantees used supportive partnerships, staffing investments, and community engagement and outreach to sustain their programs and meet the needs of the communities they served. We have historically provided mission related investments (mri loans) to fund oral health-related capital needs of community-based Dental providers, services, and clinics. In 2021 and 2022 we provided 2,465,000 in mri loans, to be serviced by a thirdparty nonprofit, to three borrowers, all of whom are non-profit Dental health clinics that utilized loans for capital costs related to building and expanding Dental clinics that serve historically marginalized populations. Each of the loan borrowers demonstrated that the proceeds of the loans will expand physical capacity and will result in more patients receiving oral healthcare. These loans are included as mission related investments on the balance sheet and we had 2,215,000 in outstanding loans as of december 31, 2023.