Path Forward Convenes Funders in Denver on Philanthropy That Unlocks Lasting Mental Health Funding

Regional funders and experts share gifts that improve care now and unlock public and private funding later

DENVER (April 26, 2026): Alongside NatCon 2026, Path Forward convened funders and experts for a Policy-Philanthropy Roundtable. The focus: gifts that improve mental health care now and live on by unlocking public or private funding later.

Three major gifts anchored the discussion:

• Ballmer Group’s $72 million to expand Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics in Illinois, Kansas, and Michigan.
• Kaiser Permanente’s Mental Health Workforce Accelerator with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, which supports new graduates on the path to licensure. The Rapides Foundation is already replicating it in Louisiana.
• Peg’s Foundation’s investments in technology for behavioral health providers.

Regional philanthropy can do more than sustain the status quo. It can accelerate better practice, and it can move faster than public dollars. These gifts show how funders in one community can build toward a system worthy of the nation.

Becker’s Behavioral Health covered the roundtable in its May 29 report on the behavioral health workforce pipeline: https://www.beckersbehavioralhealth.com/workforce/the-behavioral-health-workforce-pipeline-where-it-stands-and-where-its-headed/