How much does Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation give?

Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation reported 29 grants totaling $121,500 in its FY2023 IRS filing. It funded between 28 and 33 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2023, its largest causes are Education (22%), Health (16%), Environment (16%).

Who are Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2023: Aspen Youth Center ($89k), Steadman Philippon Research Institute ($50k), Independence Pass Foundation ($45k).

Does Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 3% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Aspen Community Foundation, Colorado Gives Foundation, Aspen Business Center Foundation.

Where is Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation based?

Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation is based in CO.

Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation

Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation

Its FY2023 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$122k

Granted FY2023

Grants FY2023

States reached

$20k

Largest

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 2023.

Education$192kHealth$140kEnvironment$135kYouth Development$122kArts & Culture$82kAnimals$47kHousing & Shelter$45kHuman Services$40kOther$0

02FY2023 · 29 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2023

Under $10k26 grants · $78k
$10k–50k3 grants · $44k

$3,500

Median grant

States reached

$2.6M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
ASPEN VALLEY SKI CLUB	$20,000
ASPEN YOUTH CENTER	$13,500
STEADMAN PHILIPPON RESEARCH INSTITU	$10,000
INDEPENDENCE PASS FNDT	$8,750
GRAND STAIRCASE ESCALANTE NTL MNT P	$5,000
BEARS EARS PARTNERSHIP	$5,000
RIVER BRIDGE REGIONAL CENTER	$5,000
FOOD BANKS OF THE ROCKIES	$5,000
ROARING FORK OUTDOOR VOLUNTEERS	$5,000
EDUC FNDT FOR THE COLO NAT'L GUARD	$5,000
LA PUENTE HOME INC	$5,000
YOUTH ZONE	$4,000
ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY	$4,000
FRIENDS OF THE ASPEN ANIMAL SHELTER	$3,500
ROARING FORK VALLEY EARLY LEARNING	$3,500

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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–23, $23k) 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.

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.

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

$808k · 37 repeat orgs$56k to everyone else

37 repeat relationships: 28 still active in FY2023, 9 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$808k

$51k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+81%

+123%

Still filing today

59%

55%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EnvironmentHealthAnimalsEducationArts & CultureYouth DevelopmentOther

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

AY
ASPEN YOUTH CENTER
7× · 2017–2023 · $89k · revenue +81%
SP
STEADMAN PHILIPPON RESEARCH INSTITUTE
5× · 2019–2023 · $50k · revenue +18%
IP
INDEPENDENCE PASS FOUNDATION
7× · 2017–2023 · $45k · revenue +140%

Funded once

IG
Individual grant recipient
one grant, 2017 · $10k
AJ
ASPEN JUNIOR HOCKEY INC
one grant, 2017 · $8k · revenue +12%
FB
FOOD BANK OF THE ROCKIES
one grant, 2020 · $5k · revenue +23%

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.

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

Rocky Mountain Wild

Rocky mountain wild works to protect, connect, and restore wildlife and wild lands in the southern rocky mountain region. we work to secure the biodiversity of the mountains, plains, and desert ecosystems of colorado, wyoming, utah, and…

Environment

Rocky Mountain Field Institute Inc

Rocky Mountain Field Institute conserves and protects public lands in Southern Colorado through volunteer-based trail and restoration projects, environmental education, and restoration research.

—

Montana Wildlife Federation

The montana wildlife federation is a statewide conservation organization dedicated to protecting wildlife, wildlife habitat, and public access for outdoor recreation.

Animals

Wild Rockies Field Institute Inc

To broaden the nature of a liberal arts education; teach critical thinking about social & environmental issues; foster understanding of & respect for natural & human communities; & cultivate a sense of place that encourages personal,…

Education

Colorado Open Lands

Colorado open lands' mission is to preserve the significant open lands and natural heritage of colorado through private and public partnerships, innovative land conservation, and strategic leadership.

Environment

Greater Yellowstone Coalition

Greater yellowstone coalition works with all people to protect the lands, waters, and wildlife of the greater yellowstone ecosystem, now and for future generations.

Environment

Roaring Fork Safe Passages

The RFSP works to improve safety for wildlife crossing Colorado Highway 82, focusing on reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions. The initiative specifically addresses wildlife like elk, mule deer,and other animals that get caught in traffic…

Environment

Aspen Center for Environmental Studies

Aces' mission is to inspire a life-long commitment to the earth by providing innovative and immersive programming for all ages.

Environment

Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado

Motivate and enable people to be active stewards of colorado's natural resources.

Recreation & Sports

Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts

To unite, elevate and empower colorado's conservation community to protect the lands and waters that define our state.

Environment

Wildlands Restoration Volunteers

Building diverse communities that care for the land.

Environment

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Wilderness Land Trust; the most unlike its peers is Humane World for Animals Inc. 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

28 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. 28 of the 49 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)

28/28

Grantees still filing

26/28

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$511,625Health$99,500Youth Development$88,500Environment$49,750Animals$45,500Arts & Culture$38,000Education$30,500

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 FoundationCO38.2× affinity16 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Aspen Community Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · Aspen Business Center Foundation · Castaways Foundation · The Thrift Shop · Alpenglow Foundation · El Pomar Foundation · Zanin Family Foundation · Nm Morris Family Foundation · Western Colorado Community Foundation Inc · Anschutz Family Foundation · Ernst and Wilma Martens 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 Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

14report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

Play a game based on Fred and Elli Iselin’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