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Denver Dumb Friends League at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Denver Dumb Friends League

Working with our compassionate community, we will end pet homelessness and animal suffering.

$30k
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$20k
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.

Animals$1.5MCommunity Improvement$20kArts & Culture$10k
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 1 grants below total $20,000, the rows itemized in this filing. The $30,000 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $10,000 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.
$20,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$180M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ANIMAL WELFARE ASSOCIATION COLORADO$20,000
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 (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 98% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%DAWGS 'N TEXAS: $34k → 11%PAAS: $44k → 21%DRIFTER'S HEARTS OF HOPE: $5k → 3%COLORADO UNWANTED HORSE ALLIANCE: $5k → 10%THE COLORADO HUMANE SOCIETY & SPCA INC: $250k → 12%VALLEY HUMANE LEAGUE: $10k → 17%CATALYST COUNCIL INC: $5k → 6%DAWGS 'N TEXAS: $6k → 11%PAAS: $21k → 21%THE COLORADO HUMANE SOCIETY & SPCA INC: $250k → 12%CATALYST COUNCIL INC: $5k → 6%PAAS: $10k → 21%AWAC: $24k → 12%CATALYST COUNCIL INC: $5k → 6%ANIMAL WELFARE ASSOCIATION COLORADO: $20k → 12%CATALYST COUNCIL INC: $5k → 6%ANIMAL WELFARE ASSOCIATION COLORADO: $20k → 12%AWAC: $15k → 12%COLORADO FEDERATION OF ANIMAL WELFARE: $15k → 12%COLORADO FEDERATION OF ANIMAL WELFARE: $15k → 12%PETAID COLORADO: $247k → 12%PETAID COLORADO: $205k → 12%PETAID COLORADO: $204k → 12%CPAW: $100k → 12%CFAWA: $15k → 12%CVMA: $7k → 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.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.5M · 6 repeat orgs$37k to everyone else

6 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
5

Total granted

$1.5M
$37k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-57%
+9%

Still filing today

50%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
AnimalsArts & CultureOther
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

  • PC
    Petaid Colorado
    3× · 2017–2019 · $755k · revenue -97%
  • TC
    THE COLORADO HUMANE SOCIETY & SPCA INC
    2× · 2017–2018 · $500k · revenue -32% · 65% of their budget
  • CF
    COLORADO FEDERATION OF ANIMAL WELFARE
    8× · 2017–2025 · $142k · revenue -1%

Funded once

  • DA
    DENVER ART MUSEUMgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +72%
  • VH
    VALLEY HUMANE LEAGUE
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue -97%
  • CV
    Colorado Veterinary Medical Association
    one grant, 2022 · $7k · revenue +9%
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
Dogs Unbroken

Dog Rescue Dogs Unbroken supports Colorado dogs at higher risk for euthanasia evaluating their behavioral stability and applying training methods appropriate for their needs. The goal of helping each dog learn to make good choices in…

Animals
2
Colorado Animal Welfare League

Free/affordable and safe spay and neuter clinics in low-income areas around Colorado as well as occasional rescue and adoption of homeless animals

Animals
3
Paws On the Ground Colorado

dog rescue and adoption

Animals
4
Lucky Day Animal Rescue of Colorado

Lucky Day Animal Rescue of Colorado LDAR serves the public as a 501c3 tax exempt, non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue of homeless and abandoned animals in Colorado and surrounding areas. We rescue, rehabilitate and find homes…

Animals
5
Environmental and Animal Defense

At Environmental and Animal Defense, our mission is to provide Colorado with access to affordable legal services for environmental and animal issues, in addition to protecting wildlife and their habitats through enforcement of the law. No…

Crime & Legal
6
No Kill Colorado

No kill colorado?s mission is to help make colorado the safest state for homeless animals

Animals
7
Cats League and Assistance of the Western Slope

Homeless cats are maintained by providing shelter, food, Veterinary Care, Spaying, and Neutering, Neutering, Medical Services. Cats are then placed in adoptive homes.

Animals
8
Herding Dog Rescue of Central Oregon

Our mission is to help herding dogs who are abandoned, neglected and abused or simply in the wrong home into a loving appropriate home.

Animals
9
Ark-Valley Humane Society Inc

Ark-Valley Humane Society's (AVHS) Mission is ensuring the welfare of companion animals through compassion and care. AVHS operated an open-admission animal shelter for Chaffee County, Colorado.

Animals
10
Runaways Animal Rescue
Animals
11
Animal House Pets & Grooming Inc

To reduce the rate of euthanasia for dogs by providing shelter, foster care, adoptions and educational outreach.

—
12
Los Huerfanos Animal Welfare Association

Animal Care and welfare throughout Huerfano County

Animals
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Colorado Humane Society & Spca Inc; the most unlike its peers is Denver Art Museum. 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

10 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. 10 of the 11 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/10
Grantees still filing
3/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Petaid Colorado: $755,023 · OtherPetaid ColoradoTHE COLORADO HUMANE SOCIETY & SPCA INC: $500,000 · OtherTHE COLORADO HUMANE SOCIETY & SPCA INC+2 more: $26,645 · OtherCOLORADO FEDERATION OF ANIMAL WELFARE: $142,000 · AnimalsCOLORADO FEDERATION …PEACEFUL ANIMAL ADOPTION SHLTR INC: $74,790 · AnimalsPEACEFUL ANIMAL ADOP…DALHART ANIMAL WELLNESS GROUP AND SANCTUARY D A W G S: $40,200 · AnimalsDALHART ANIMAL WELLN…VALLEY HUMANE LEAGUE: $10,000 · Animals+2 more: $10,000 · AnimalsDENVER ART MUSEUM: $10,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$1,281,668Animals$276,990Arts & Culture$10,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPetaid Colorado: $755,023 over 3y, 9.6% of budgetTHE COLORADO HUMANE SOCIETY & SPCA INC: $500,000 over 2y, 65% of budgetCOLORADO FEDERATION OF ANIMAL WELFARE: $142,000 over 8y, 16% of budgetPEACEFUL ANIMAL ADOPTION SHLTR INC: $74,790 over 3y, 9.0% of budgetDALHART ANIMAL WELLNESS GROUP AND SANCTUARY D A W G S: $40,200 over 2y, 7.5% of budgetDENVER ART MUSEUM: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetVALLEY HUMANE LEAGUE: $10,000 over 1y, 5.9% of budgetColorado Veterinary Medical Association: $6,645 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetColorado Unwanted Horse Alliance: $5,000 over 1y, 6.9% of budgetDrifters Hearts of Hope Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 1.7% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA1.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile Foundation

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 Denver Dumb Friends League funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Denver Dumb Friends League. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%6%25%56%100%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
    1get no government money at all
    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 11 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

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    More from the funding graph

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