Douglas County Nonprofits: Where to Volunteer, Give and Visit

The number to save in your phone: (720) 831-8130. That is the wildlife emergency line for Rocky Mountain Wildlife Alliance (RMWA), a wildlife hospital and rehabilitation center at 6490 N US Hwy 85 in Sedalia, licensed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The line is answered seven days a week, 9am to 5pm. Their site spells out when to act (an animal that is bleeding, missing a limb, covered in parasites, a downy young raptor on the ground, a destroyed nest) and when to leave it alone (a young animal exploring while a parent is still nearby).

Founder and executive director Emily Davenport is a certified wildlife rehabilitator and registered veterinary technician, and the "Alliance" part is literal: alongside the hospital, RMWA runs education for the public and continuing education for wildlife professionals. I drove out in April 2026 and met Emily and a few of the education ambassadors; that visit became the lead of Castle Rock Crew #071, linked below.

RMWA's first annual gala, A Wild Affair, is Saturday, Nov 7, 2026, 5pm, at the Lakewood Country Club, 6800 W 10th Ave — that's in Lakewood, outside Douglas County, but it's the Alliance's biggest single fundraiser of the year for the Sedalia hospital: dinner, drinks, a silent auction and a chance to meet the live animal ambassadors. Tickets are $125.

Humane Colorado (formerly the Dumb Friends League, 115-plus years in) runs the Buddy Center at 4556 Castleton Court in Castle Rock. It handles adoptions, pet admissions, lost-and-found and humane education. Adoption hours are 10am to 5pm every day except Tuesday, when it is closed; pet admissions run 9am to 5pm daily. In fiscal year 2025 the organization welcomed 4,303 homeless pets across its three shelters.

If you read Castle Rock Crew you already know this place: I stopped in back in April 2025 for a Local Spotlight (Castle Rock Crew #013, linked below), and we feature one of the Buddy Center's adoptables in the newsletter on a regular basis (Diesel the 63-pound cattle dog, Francis and Dot the Great Pyrenees puppies, Daphne the shy one). Most of them are gone by the next issue, which is the point.

The other Humane Colorado site in the county is the Harmony Equine Center at 5540 Colorado 86 in Franktown: 168 acres, three barns (intake, training, adoptions), 26 pastures and turnouts, two indoor riding arenas and an education center, where horses, ponies, donkeys and mules removed from their owners by law enforcement are rehabilitated and rehomed. It is open to the public 10am to 3pm, seven days a week, and the adoptable equines are listed online. When Humane Colorado and law enforcement took in more than 70 horses in August 2025, we pointed readers to the flash fundraiser (Castle Rock Crew #032).

A Colorado 501(c)(3) sanctuary for farm animals that, in the ranch's words, "lost their homes through no fault of their own": horses, donkeys, goats, cows, sheep, chickens and dogs whose previous owners hit health, lifestyle or money trouble. The ranch pays for it with tours, camps, private parties and photo shoots, and says all proceeds go to the animals.

The math they publish is refreshingly plain: about $100 to $150 a day to operate, roughly 20 small bales of hay a week, and a goal of keeping $5,000 in the emergency vet fund each year.

Sunday Salmon calls itself a "NO-COST, organic, gluten and seed-oil-free community restaurant," and that is exactly what it is: a registered 501(c)(3) at 207 W Wolfensberger Rd, Suite 100, in Castle Rock that serves a sit-down, family-style dinner every Sunday at 5pm and 6pm. Tables seat 10 to 12, the meal is free for everyone, and donations are accepted. It started as founder Mary Grothe's own Sunday salmon-and-vegetables dinner for friends and family, which she opened up to the whole town.

The Sunday dinner is the anchor, but the site also lists a Tuesday Tacos buffet, Wagonwheel Wednesdays, Thankful Thursdays and a mobile food trailer. Everything runs on donations: September's published budget was $18,600, of which the four Sunday dinners cost $4,600. We profiled Sunday Salmon in September 2025 and caught the food truck's Tuesday Tacos at Unity on Park in June 2026; both issues are linked below.

The Help & Hope Center at 1638 Park Street in Castle Rock is the county's catch-all for emergencies: food, housing and utility help, clothing, household items and emergency financial support for Douglas and Elbert Counties. Its own goal for the year is emergency assistance for more than 30,000 people. The food pantry works like a store, with clients shopping the aisles for groceries, toiletries, diapers and pet food rather than taking a pre-packed box.

Client services are open Monday through Friday, 8:30am to noon. The attached Treasures Thriftique (Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm, Sat 9am to 4pm) funds the work and is the easiest way to help without scheduling anything: shop there, or drop donations Monday through Friday 9am to noon and Saturday 9am to 2pm. I ran the 2025 Turkey Rock Trot, the Thanksgiving-morning 5K that drew 3,600 people out for the Help & Hope Center (and finished 218th of 225 in my age group; the recap is in Castle Rock Crew #048, below).

The Parker Task Force for Human Services has run on a 100 percent volunteer staff since it was founded on February 3, 1987. It provides food, limited financial help to head off evictions and utility shut-offs, and referrals for people in Parker, Franktown and Elizabeth. The food bank is at 19105 Longs Way in Parker, open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 9am to 1pm; clients need to arrive or call by 11:30am for same-day service.

The Aspen Effect's stated mission is to "build resilient, connected families by preventing youth mental health crises and harmful behaviors through mentors, animals, and a healing ranch environment." The ranch is Happy Dog Ranch Horse Sanctuary, 117 acres about 3.5 miles south of downtown Sedalia on CO 67, home to nearly 70 rescued horses plus alpacas, goats, mules, mini horses, four barn cats, a donkey and a pig named Charlotte. The Aspen Effect's "Hangout" is a heated three-room apartment next to the indoor arena.

Programs: the Ranch Mentor Club pairs kids with adult mentors and puts them to work with the goats and mini horses; Ranch Resilience Camp is a two-day summer morning camp; a Teen Advisory Board gives the youth a say. The organization says it has served more than 1,000 families since it began in 2017, with over 300 in 2026. We brought a group of readers out for a private tour in April 2026; it is a quieter place than you expect, and the phones-away rule is real.

CALF is the Colorado Agricultural Leadership Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that John and Bea Lowell created in 2002 "to preserve a piece of rural life within the suburbs and promote agricultural education." It runs the Lowell OV Ranch along East Plum Creek in Castle Rock, homesteaded in 1878 and in the Lowell family since 1906. The core program is field trips: by CALF's own count, close to 3,000 students come through between April and October.

We went to Harvest Day on September 26, paid the $1 minimum at the gate, rode the hay wagon (someone rode along in a cow suit), met the two donkeys and watched a rooster strut out of the old house they turned into a chicken coop. The full visit, with photos, is linked below.

Not a place you volunteer so much as a place you go. A Sanctuary Center is a nonprofit corporation on just under four acres at 3720 W Wolfensberger Road, where Wolfensberger meets Highway 105 west of Castle Rock. Its own summary is "Walk ~ Read ~ Reflect ~ Renew": a stone labyrinth, a meditation building with a lending library, benches and walking paths, a Sacred Geometry Garden (medicine wheel, Platonic solids, a Pa-Kua and a sundial) and the wishing trees, where visitors tie written prayers and wishes to the branches.

Open sunrise to sunset, seven days a week. When we visited in August there was no gate, no fee and nothing to sign; you park and walk in.

Tri Arts Project (TAP) is the nonprofit that runs the art center inside the old Cantril School at 312 Cantril St. in Castle Rock. Its own line is that it exists "for the education, creation, and presentation of the arts," which in practice means a class catalog in ten categories (3D art, art theory and business, crafts, creative writing, drawing and lettering, experiential creativity, music, painting, photography and film, textile and fiber art), more than 150 class opportunities a year, a gallery, and TAP Talks, the free exhibition-opening nights. Most classes are for 13-plus or adults; single workshops on the current catalog run $36 to $85 for a 2.5-to-4-hour session, and a TAP Creatives Scholarship covers a $250 class credit.

I stopped into a TAP Talk in January 2026 not totally sure what I was walking into and stayed about an hour: wine, beer, seltzers, cookies and small bites, the artists talking through their work, judges picking three winners with real prize money. You do not have to consider yourself artsy; it is an easy weeknight. That visit is in Castle Rock Crew #055, linked below.

The Castle Rock Parks and Trails Foundation is the 501(c)(3) (EIN 46-2703132) that raises money and volunteers for the Town's outdoor system: 62 developed parks, 136 miles of trails and more than 6,900 acres of open space, by the foundation's count. Founded in 2012, its mission is to "inspire nature conservation, promote open space stewardship, and encourage our community to get outdoors." Projects it lists: the Fit Ground courses at Philip S. Miller Park and Butterfield Crossing Park, remapping the Ridgeline Open Space trails, Possibilities Playground and the Legacy Trail. It is also the group behind Tunes for Trails, the free summer concert series at the Philip S. Miller Park amphitheater, and the Twilight on the Trails gala each September.

It is also the door into Lost Canyon Ranch Open Space, the 681 acres the foundation says it helped preserve from development, through its Discover Lost Canyon series of guided hikes and stargazing nights (the site says to check back for 2026 dates). I got a sneak-peek hike out there with the foundation's people in July 2025 and met the crew at their volunteer info night at 105 West in April 2026; both issues are linked below.

Rotary is the service club you have heard of and maybe never seen inside. Two clubs cover this end of the county. The Rotary Club of Castle Rock meets Wednesdays at 7:15am at Unity on Park, 884 Park St.; its projects include the Ducky Derby (the flagship fundraiser), Palisade peach sales, the Epic Day of Service, Ride to End Polio and youth programs (RYLA, an Interact club and scholarships). The Rotary Club of Castle Pines meets in person the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at 6pm at the Castle Pines Village HOA, 688 W Happy Canyon Rd; it runs an annual Topgolf tournament and July-to-August peach sales, and funds water and health projects in Ghana and Kenya through Rotary global grants. Each club has its own foundation for charitable giving.

I wrote the clubs up in February 2025 (Castle Rock Crew #008) because so many welcome-survey answers said some version of "I want to get plugged in." The Castle Rock club's site puts it plainly: "Our doors are always open to guests!" Sitting in on a meeting costs nothing.

Tall Tales Ranch is a Highlands Ranch nonprofit (P.O. Box 631903) that Pat and Susan Mooney built around their son Ross, who acquired a brain injury after a 2008 bone marrow transplant. They wanted "a safe, supportive, and wonderful place to live" where he could "experience community, responsibility, challenge, fulfillment, and acceptance." The mission today: "Tall Tales actively partners with adults living with I/DD in their pursuit of full and enriched lives by creating and sustaining radically inclusive communities and opportunities." The adults it serves are called ambassadors, and the most visible program is the Tall Tales Coffee Company, a mobile coffee trailer staffed by ambassadors that you can book for an event.

The big project is the Life Sharing Community in Lone Tree: 28 residences for up to 32 adults with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities, mostly one-bedroom apartments on monthly leases, plus paired cottages, a clubhouse called The Peggy, The Barn (a permanent home for the coffee company and event space), a community garden and a crosswalk to RTD light rail, with staff on site around the clock. The capital campaign lists a $23 million project cost, $19 million raised and a groundbreaking planned for summer 2026. We wrote it up when the plan moved forward in December 2025; that DougCo Drop is linked below. The organization holds Candid's 2026 Gold Seal of Transparency.

The Douglas County Veterans Monument Foundation is the Castle Rock 501(c)(3) behind the veterans monument at 4th and Wilcox in downtown Castle Rock: the "Freedoms Keeper" statue on a five-foot granite pedestal, six service seals, a POW flag and wall stones salvaged from the historic courthouse that burned in 1978. Its stated aim is to "become a valuable resource that directly supports our home town heroes: local veterans," a group the foundation puts at more than 20,000 in Douglas County.

The money goes out through the Veterans Assistance Grant program: up to $3,000 per eligible veteran, once per lifetime, for ADA home modifications, funeral expenses, service dogs, transportation and hardship. VetFest is the fundraiser; we previewed the 8th annual one, a free day at Festival Park, in June 2025 (Castle Rock Crew #025, below).