How much does Big Blue Sky Foundation give?

Big Blue Sky Foundation reported 26 grants totaling $297,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 17 and 31 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does Big Blue Sky Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (45%), Health (29%), Environment (7%).

Who are Big Blue Sky Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Regents of the University of California ($500k), Children's Hospital Colorado Foundation ($450k), Regents of the University of California ($300k).

Does Big Blue Sky Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Big Blue Sky Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as Big Blue Sky Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Aspen Community Foundation, Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, Castaways Foundation.

Where is Big Blue Sky Foundation based?

Big Blue Sky Foundation is based in CO.

Big Blue Sky Foundation

Big Blue Sky Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Big Blue Sky Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$297k

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$100k

Largest

01What it funds

0197% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$1.4MHealth$902kEnvironment$230kArts & Culture$206kRecreation & Sports$150kHuman Services$85kYouth Development$62kAnimals$26kOther$0

02FY2024 · 26 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k20 grants · $57k
$10k–50k4 grants · $40k
$50k–250k2 grants · $200k

$5,000

Median grant

States reached

$1.6M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL COLORADO FOUNDATION	$100,000
UCLA FOUNDATION	$100,000
ANDERSON RANCH ARTS CENTER	$10,000
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE	$10,000
JAZZ ASPEN - SNOWMASS	$10,000
SANFORD BURNHAM PREBYS	$10,000
BEST BUDDIES	$7,000
WARRIORS & QUIET WATERS FOUNDATION INC	$5,000
THE BUDDY PROGRAM	$5,000
GREENPEACE FUND INC	$5,000
A WAY OUT	$5,000
HELP US ADOPT	$5,000
CLEAN WATER FUND	$5,000
ASPEN OUT	$3,000
ASPEN VALLEY HOSPITAL FOUNDATION	$2,500

02The need

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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 37% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$2.6M · 42 repeat orgs$179k to everyone else

42 repeat relationships: 20 still active in FY2024, 22 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$2.6M

$161k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+68%

+95%

Still filing today

79%

53%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $18k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationHealthEnvironmentArts & CultureAnimalsInternationalOther

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

CH
Children's Hospital Colorado Foundation
5× · 2017–2024 · $450k · revenue +42%
AH
ASPEN HOPE CENTER
3× · 2019–2021 · $200k · revenue +76%
AV
ASPEN VALLEY SKISNOWBOARD CLUB INC
4× · 2017–2021 · $115k · revenue +84%

Funded once

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION
one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue 0%
A
AVSC
one grant, 2023 · $15k
IG
Individual grant recipient
one grant, 2022 · $10k

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.

Uc Riverside Foundation

To support educational, research and public functions and programs of the riverside campus of the university of california.

Education

The Uc Davis Foundation

The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.

Education

Uc Santa Barbara Foundation

The uc santa barbara foundation actively works to further the goals of the university of california, santa barbara. the foundation seeks to maintain and nurture the university's quality and distinction. on behalf of the campus, the…

Education

Augustana College

Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…

Education

Silicon Schools Fund Inc

The mission of the silicon schools fund is to improve education through supporting the launch of excellent new schools, improving academic instruction in existing schools, and by funding some of the boldest innovations in education…

Education

Association of California School Administrators

The association serves its members by creating resources that enable california school administrators to develop and apply creative leadership and management skills and in turn, improve the educational process for all students.

—

Aspen Valley Land Trust

Protecting the open land and special places of the roaring fork and middle colorado river valleys for wildlife, agriculture, and community forever.

Environment

Ucsf Foundation Investment Company

The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.

Education

The Sierra Fund

The Sierra Fund (TSF) is a non-profit organization with a mission to restore ecosystem and community resiliency in the Sierra Nevada.

Environment

Colorado State University Foundation

See schedule o colorado state university foundation assists in the promotion, development, and enhancement of facilities and educational programs and enhancements of faculty, students, and alumni of colorado state university (csu). this is…

Education

The San Diego Foundation

The san diego foundation inspires enduring philanthropy and enables community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.

Philanthropy

United States Skiing Foundation

United states skiing foundation is engaged in not-for-profit membership, competition, training, development, and educational activities related to amateur skiers and snowboarders who are, or aspire to become, members of the u.s. ski and…

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Uc San Diego Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. 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

46 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 46 of the 63 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

45/46

Grantees still filing

35/46

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$1,168,650Health$862,000Education$489,700Arts & Culture$202,730Environment$153,500Recreation & Sports$114,900Employment$114,600

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

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.

Aspen Community FoundationCO29.7× affinity12 shared granteesties to 10 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Aspen Community Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · Castaways Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · The Thrift Shop · Arches Foundation · Robins Foundation · El Pomar Foundation · Greater Houston Community Foundation · Michael S Rosen Foundation · Freedman Family Foundation · Steven & Kiki Esrick Dream Foundation Inc

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 Big Blue Sky Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Big Blue Sky Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

13report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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.

Play a game based on Big Blue Sky’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