At SIPA's User Conference last month, SIPA GovGrants Program Director Noah Kaplan moderated a panel highlighting three of the program's recipients: Town of Crested Butte, Englewood Schools, and the Colorado Digital Service. Representatives from each grantee shared valuable insights on how they are using their grants to drive impact and what they believe helped their projects stand out in the highly competitive grant program.
Panelists' Messages for Future Applicants
“Don’t focus on just implementing a tool; develop a model others can replicate.”
- Paul Whitaker, Executive Director of Technology and Innovation at Englewood Schools
Paul emphasized the importance of capacity building for staff. Englewood Schools' grant focuses on incorporating AI into K-12 learning, and they recognized an opportunity to create a replicable model for other school districts facing the same challenge. Paul noted that their goal was more than just implementing an education-friendly AI tool; it was about maturing existing efforts into a scalable framework.
"Don't reinvent the wheel, and partner when possible."
- Sarah Tuneberg, Director of the Colorado Digital Service
Sarah spoke about CDS's grant supporting the development of the Colorado Energy Savings Navigator (CESN) tool, aimed at making it easier for Colorado residents to connect with energy reimbursement and subsidy programs that they qualify for. Sarah explained that a crucial factor in the successful implementation was that they started by talking to others who had developed similar tools in the exploratory and design phase of the work. By partnering with the developers of "MyFriendBen," her team saved time and money, allowing them to make the most of their grant.
"You don't know if you don't apply."
- Kat Carpenter, IT Administrator for the Town of Crested Butte
Kat spoke about the redesign of the Town of Crested Butte website, a project that stood out because of its user-centered design approach. The town prioritized accessibility not just for compliance, but because it was the “right thing to do” to best provide services to their residents. Kat emphasized that even small towns like Crested Butte are capable of digital service innovation that benefits all. She encouraged prospective applicants to be aware of the grant program cycle, and to prepare their proposals early so that they could put their best foot forward when applying for a grant.
The Impact of the SIPA GovGrants Program So Far
SIPA is proud to celebrate the SIPA GovGrants program reaching the first anniversary of our initial awards this fall. Though still a new program that is growing and developing, SIPA GovGrants has already provided more than 50 grants to Colorado government, with projects driving impact in diverse areas such as Security and Identity, Community Outreach, Public Data, and Smart Cities.
The GovGrants team appreciates our panelists who volunteered to share their experiences with the over 500 attendees at SIPA's largest ever User Conference. We know that their perspectives were both interesting and valuable to the many government representatives considering applying to the program in the future.
SIPA GovGrants is currently evaluating applications for the Fall 2025 grant cycle, which will be our third cohort of awards. We expect a new round of applications to open for submissions in early 2026.