True to our mission today, the Posner Center’s history is one built on collaboration.
Hundreds of international development organizations call Colorado home. Though they work in various field and have diverse approaches, these organizations share a common goal — a more equitable and prosperous world for all. They also confront the same administrative burdens and financial challenges. iDE, one of Colorado’s leading international development organizations, recognized this.
In 2011, at a meeting in Addis Ababa, iDE’s international Board of Directors committed to increasing the efficiency and impact of Colorado’s international organizations by approving an ambitious plan to develop and finance the world’s first collaborative center for international development.
iDE Senior Advisor Andrew Romanoff recruited and inspired other Colorado-based groups to join the effort, and the consortium soon grew to include more than two dozen organizations, many with market-based approaches to solving global challenges. Andrew also worked with other Colorado partners to finance the renovation of the Horse Barn, the Posner Center’s shared workspace in the Curtis Park neighborhood of Denver. The Horse Barn opened in July 2013, and iDE spun off the Posner Center for International Development as an independent nonprofit organization later that year.
Our Name
The Posner Center is named in recognition of the generosity of Joanne Posner-Mayer, and in honor of her parents, Jerry and Hanna Posner. Like many at the Posner Center, Jerry was an entrepreneur. He owned and operated Posner Hardware on Larimer Street with his mother in the ’30s until the mid-50s.
In 1958, he moved the store to Franklin Street, just a few blocks from the Horse Barn, where he ran it with his wife Hanna until 1973.
Photos courtesy of the Posner family.