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Colorado League of Charter Schools at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Colorado League of Charter Schools

To improve student achievement by supporting colorado's charter schools, positively reshaping the public school landscape, and advancing opportunities for innovation and expanded high-quality public school choice.

$1.2M
Granted FY2025still arriving
17
Grants FY2025still arriving
—
States reached
$321k
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$2.8MFood & Nutrition$107kPublic Benefit$100kArts & Culture$19k
02FY2025 · 17 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 17 grants below total $1,128,455, the rows itemized in this filing. The $1,231,851 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $103,396 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $24k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $161k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $623k
  • $250k+1 grant · $321k
$25,983
Median grant
—
States reached
$4.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CLCS ACTION$320,972
DSST PUBLIC SCHOOLS$182,850
ROCKY MOUNTAIN PREP$154,600
REACH UNIVERSITY$131,750
JACK HOLMES LLC$103,500
ATLAS PREPARATORY SCHOOL$50,175
UNIVERSITY PREP$39,425
KIPP COLORADO$28,225
SALIDA MONTESSORI CHARTER SCHOOL$25,983
STEAMBOAT MONTESSORI$15,000
GEORGETOWN COMMUNITY SCHOOL$15,000
KNOWLEDGE QUEST ACADEMY$15,000
MOUNTAIN MIDDLE SCHOOL$12,440
HIGH ROCKIES COMMUNITY SCHOOL$10,000
VISTA CHARTER SCHOOL$8,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 20% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%THE WILDFLOWER FOUNDATION: $24k → 11%50CAN: $56k → 14%NOVASTAR ACADEMY: $29k → 3%BAL SWAN: $7k → 5%STEAMBOAT MONTESSORI: $19k → 6%ROSS MONTESSORI SCHOOL: $9k → 6%PROSPECT ACADEMY: $150k → 7%GEORGETOWN COMMUNITY SCHOOL: $6k → 7%Empower Community High School: $6k → 8%SPACIOUS SKIES CHARTER SCHOOL: $28k → 9%Pagosa Peak Open School: $10k → 10%AXIS INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY: $10k → 11%Love of Learning: $5k → 12%UTE MOUNTAIN TRIBAL SCHOOL: $13k → 15%GARDNER SCHOOL: $13k → 19%PROSPECT ACADEMY: $6k → 7%VISIONS PERFORMING ARTS: $19k → 8%Spacious Skies Charter School: $6k → 9%Axis International Academy: $5k → 11%FRENCH AMERICAN SCHOOL: $24k → 12%UTE MOUNTAIN UTE CHARTER SCHOOL: $13k → 15%CLCS ACTION: $575k → 7%Monarch Classical School: $10k → 9%Compass Comm Collaborative: $11k → 11%5280 FREEDOM SCHOOL: $12k → 12%CLCS ACTION: $306k → 7%LIFE SUCCESS INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY: $10k → 9%Compass Comm Collaborative: $5k → 11%UNIVERSITY PREPARATORY SCHOOLS INC: $12k → 12%CLCS ACTION: $259k → 7%Monarch Classical School: $5k → 9%MOONSHOT EDVENTURES: $10k → 12%CLCS ACTION: $100k → 7%INVENTA ACADEMY: $5k → 9%Aurora Community School: $17k → 12%AURORA COMMUNITY SCHOOL: $11k → 12%5280 High School: $5k → 12%Chalkbeat Colorado: $6k → 12%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.

64%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.9M · 10 repeat orgs$1.1M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +66% since the first grant, against +29% for those funded once.

10 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
24

Total granted

$1.9M
$333k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+66%
+29%

Still filing today

70%
46%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 35% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $730k 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
EducationPublic BenefitCommunity ImprovementOther
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

  • CA
    CLCS ACTION
    5× · 2021–2025 · $1.6M · revenue ×16 · 47% of their budget
  • PA
    Prospect Academy of Colorado
    2× · 2020–2022 · $156k · revenue +897% · 58% of their budget
  • UP
    UNIVERSITY PREPARATORY SCHOOLS
    2× · 2023–2025 · $51k · revenue +66%

Funded once

  • 5I
    50CAN INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $56k · revenue +562%
  • NA
    NOVA ACADEMY
    one grant, 2020 · $29k
  • AI
    American Indian Academy of Denver
    one grant, 2018 · $25k · revenue -51% · 31% of their budget
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
Pikes Peak School of Expeditionary Learning

Provide education for students in Pre-K through 8th grade, benefitting approximately 415 students.

Education
2
Ascend College Prep

Ascend College Prep is a public high school for 10-12th grade students in Colorado Springs and the surrounding area. Our Mission is to "Prepare and inspire students to become lifelong learners and responsible citizens through rigorous…

Education
3
Goal Academy

GOAL Academy is an alternative education online blended high school serving students across the state of Colorado. GOAL's mission statement is "to develop productive members of society". GOAL's vision statement is "to help all students…

Education
4
Academy Charter School

Academy charter school (the "school") was formed in 1993 pursuant to the colorado charter schools act to form and operate a charter school.

Education
5
New Vision Charter School

Our mission is to challenge encourage and empower students everyday to persevere on their journey to becoming lifelong learners.

Education
6
Polaris Charter School

The mission of Polaris Charter School is to create a joyful and exciting learning community for intellectually curious elementary-aged children. Through an engaging, inquiry-based curriculum, our students will develop the ability to…

Education
7
Omar D Blair Charter School

To educate and provide all scholars the opportunities and supports to acquire and apply knowledge and skills so that they are prepared for continued success in the high schools, and therefore the colleges and universities of their choice.

Education
8
Eagle County Charter Academy

The Eagle County Charter Academy community creates life-long learners and productive global citizens through a challenging college preparatory curriculum and character education.

Education
9
Bosque School

To create transformative learning experiences that empower a diverse community of students to lead lives of intellectual curiosity, personal integrity, and compassionate contribution to a more just world.

Education
10
Fort Collins Montessori School

The mission of Fort Collins Montessori School is to provide a classic pre/k-6th grade Montessori program that inspires and empowers children with an exceptional educational experience based on the principles and philosophy of Dr. Maria…

Education
11
Vega Collegiate Academy

Vega Collegiate Academy is designed with an extended school day and a slightly longer school year focusing on developing strong skills in literacy and math. It executes an academically rigorous curriculum aligned with common core standards…

Education
12
Spruce Street School

Spruce Street School is a nurturing educational community that instills in a broad range of children the social, emotional, and intellectual skills for lifelong participation in a diverse society. We offer kindergarten through fifth grade…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Kipp Colorado Schools; the most unlike its peers is Bal Swan Demonstration School. 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

31 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. 31 of the 46 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.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
29/31
Grantees still filing
15/31
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CLCS ACTION: $1,560,705 · Public BenefitCLCS ACTIONDENVER SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INC: $182,850 · EducationDENVER SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND TECHN…Prospect Academy of Colorado: $156,000 · EducationProspect Academy of ColoradoREACH UNIVERSITY: $131,750 · EducationREACH UNIVERSITY50CAN INC: $56,000 · Education50CAN INCUNIVERSITY PREPARATORY SCHOOLS: $51,425 · EducationUNIVERSITY PREPARATORY SCHOOLSAtlas Preparatory School Inc: $50,175 · EducationAtlas Preparatory School IncMOUNTAIN VILLAGE MONTESSORI CHARTER SCHOOL: $34,302 · Education+18 more: $250,603 · Education+18 moreROCKY MOUNTAIN PREPARATORY SCHOOLS: $154,600 · OtherROCKY MOUNTAIN PREP…JACK HOLMES LLC: $103,500 · OtherJACK HOLMES LLCSpacious Skies Charter School: $33,820 · OtherSpacious Skies Char…NOVA ACADEMY: $28,725 · OtherNOVA ACADEMYAurora Community School: $27,500 · OtherAurora Community Sc…American Indian Academy of Denver: $25,000 · OtherVISIONS PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY: $18,800 · Other+12 more: $119,445 · Other+12 moreTHE COLORADO NONPROFIT DEVELOPMENT CENTER: $6,000 · Community Improvement
Public Benefit$1,560,705Education$913,105Other$511,390Community Improvement$6,000

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 budgetCLCS ACTION: $1,560,705 over 5y, 47% of budgetDENVER SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INC: $182,850 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetProspect Academy of Colorado: $156,000 over 2y, 58% of budgetREACH UNIVERSITY: $131,750 over 1y, 0.3% of budget50CAN INC: $56,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetUNIVERSITY PREPARATORY SCHOOLS: $51,425 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetAtlas Preparatory School Inc: $50,175 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMOUNTAIN VILLAGE MONTESSORI CHARTER SCHOOL: $34,302 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetKIPP Colorado Schools: $28,225 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAurora Community School: $27,500 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetSalida Montessori Charter School: $25,983 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetAmerican Indian Academy of Denver: $25,000 over 1y, 31% of budgetTHE WILDFLOWER FOUNDATION: $24,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetGeorgetown Community School: $21,250 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetKnowledge Quest Academy: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetDURANGO SCHOOLS OF CHOICE INC: $13,205 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetMOUNTAIN MIDDLE SCHOOL: $12,440 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetHigh Rockies Community School: $10,000 over 1y, 4.1% of budgetMoonshot edVentures: $9,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetMARK ROSS MONTESSORI FOUNDATION: $8,800 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetVISTA CHARTER SCHOOL: $8,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSOUTHWEST OPEN SCHOOL: $7,830 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTHE COLORADO NONPROFIT DEVELOPMENT CENTER: $6,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

Gates Family Foundati…Daniels FundCharter Fund Inc D/B/…Colorado Gives Founda…Wend II IncThe Denver FoundationThe Colorado Health F…RootedLouis Calder Foundati…Mile High United Way …Temple Hoyne Buell Fo…Walton Family Foundat…
Gates Family FoundationCO27.2× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Gates Family Foundation · Daniels Fund · Charter Fund Inc D/B/A Charter School Growth Fund · Colorado Gives Foundation · Wend II Inc · The Denver Foundation · The Colorado Health Foundation · Rooted · Louis Calder Foundation · Mile High United Way Inc · Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation · Walton Family 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 Colorado League of Charter Schools funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Colorado League of Charter Schools. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    18report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    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 46 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 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 Colorado League of Charter Schools’ 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