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Avalanche Canyon Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Avalanche Canyon Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$24k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$6k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$59kYouth Development$29kArts & Culture$15kFood & Nutrition$12kHousing & Shelter$10kHealth$7kPublic Safety & Disaster$4kHuman Services$4kOther$0
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$5,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$42k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ALEXANDER DAWSON FOUNDATION$6,000
ALEXANDER DAWSON SCHOOL$6,000
COLORADO ACADEMY$5,000
NORTH WEST FAMILY ASSISTANCE CENTER$2,500
COLORADO ACADEMY$2,000
INVEST IN KIDS$2,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY21–21, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%FREEDOM SERVICE DOGS INC: $4k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

78%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$111k · 6 repeat orgs$31k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +44% since the first grant, against +21% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
7

Total granted

$111k
$28k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+44%
+21%

Still filing today

83%
86%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthYouth DevelopmentHousing & ShelterFood & NutritionPhilanthropyOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • II
    INVEST IN KIDS
    7× · 2019–2025 · $29k · revenue +84%
  • AD
    ALEXANDER DAWSON FOUNDATION
    4× · 2019–2025 · $20k · revenue +44%
  • CA
    COLORADO ACADEMY
    2× · 2023–2025 · $12k · revenue +2%

Funded once

  • SC
    SHARING CONNEXION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +147%
  • DP
    DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2020 · $6k · revenue -1%
  • WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC
    one grant, 2020 · $4k · revenue +21%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Impact Development Fund

Impact development fund helps people within our underserved communities seek fulfillment for themselves and their families by providing access to affordable living. we create these opportunities by delivering flexible capital to nonprofit…

Housing & Shelter
2
Denver Zoological Foundation

Inspiring communities to save wildlife for future generations.

Animals
3
Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Fountain valley school of colorado provides a transformative curriculum in a supportive environment where students are challenged to think critically, become leaders, and live by our core values: courage, compassion, curiosity,…

Education
4
Food Bank of the Rockies

Food bank of the rockies ignites the power of community to nourish people facing food insecurity.

Food & Nutrition
5
International School of Denver

Our inclusive, globally-minded community develops highly motivated and academically successful bilingual learners. isd students are inter-culturally adept and make positive contributions in a complex world.

Education
6
Safehouse Denver Inc

Safehouse denver assists adult, children, and youth in reclaiming their right to a life free from domestic violence. the agency provides a broad spectrum of culturally competent, trauma-informed services, including but not limited to,…

Human Services
7
Kent Denver Country Day School

Excellence in scholarship and character is the goal of a kent denver education. the school seeks to build a caring, diverse community of responsible citizens. to that end, the school provides a challenging college preparatory curriculum…

Education
8
Denver Children's Home

Denver children's home restores hope and health to traumatized children and families through a comprehensive array of therapeutic, educational, and community-based services.

Health
9
The Food Bank for Larimer County

To provide food to all in need through community partnerships and hunger relief programs. Our vision is a hunger-free Larimer County.

Food & Nutrition
10
The Dome School

Teaching whole child using thematic curriculum, conflict resolution,self esteem, non-violent solutions to problems. bringing community sogether socially, serving nutritious meals.

—
11
Colorado Legal Services

To provide meaningful access to high quality, civil legal services in the pursuit of justice for as many low income persons and members of vulnerable populations throughout colorado as possible.

Crime & Legal
12
Denver Police Blue Hat Foundation

The denver police blue hat foundation provides financial assistance and support to active and former denver police officers, civilian employees of the police department and immediate members of their families in times of crisis.

Crime & Legal
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Denver Public Schools Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Northwest Family Assistance Center. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

12 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 12 of the 14 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
9/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ALEXANDER DAWSON SCHOOL: $36,000 · OtherALEXANDER DAWSON SCHOOLNorthwest Family Assistance Center: $2,500 · OtherCHILDHOOD APRAXIA OF SPEECH ASSOCIATION OF NORTH A: $2,000 · OtherWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC: $4,000 · OtherWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INCFREEDOM SERVICE DOGS INC: $3,500 · OtherFREEDOM SERVICE DOGS INC+1 more: $1,500 · OtherALEXANDER DAWSON FOUNDATION: $20,000 · EducationALEXANDER DAWSON FOUNDATI…COLORADO ACADEMY: $12,000 · EducationCOLORADO ACADEMYINVEST IN KIDS: $29,000 · Youth DevelopmentINVEST IN KIDSSHARING CONNEXION INC: $10,000 · Housing & ShelterTHREE SQUARE: $9,500 · Food & NutritionDENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $6,000 · PhilanthropyBRENT ELEY FOUNDATION: $4,500 · HealthNEVADA DONOR NETWORK FOUNDATION: $1,000 · Health
Other$49,500Education$32,000Youth Development$29,000Housing & Shelter$10,000Food & Nutrition$9,500Philanthropy$6,000Health$5,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetINVEST IN KIDS: $29,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetALEXANDER DAWSON FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCOLORADO ACADEMY: $12,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSHARING CONNEXION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetTHREE SQUARE: $9,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $6,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBRENT ELEY FOUNDATION: $4,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFREEDOM SERVICE DOGS INC: $3,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MAXFUND INC: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNEVADA DONOR NETWORK FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Colorado Gives Founda…Fidelity Investments …
Colorado Gives FoundationCO13.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Colorado Gives Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Avalanche Canyon Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Avalanche Canyon Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 14 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Avalanche Canyon’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home