· Private foundation
Gates Family Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k45 grants · $206k
- $10k–50k231 grants · $5.6M
- $50k–250k91 grants · $6.7M
- $250k+7 grants · $24M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION | $20,000,000 |
| CARDIGAN MOUNTAIN SCHOOL | $2,000,000 |
| LYRA | $550,000 |
| ROOTED | $400,000 |
| ROSE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $383,333 |
| COLORADO SCHOOLS FUND | $300,000 |
| RIVER NETWORK | $250,000 |
| RIO GRANDE HEADWATERS LAND TR A COL | $200,000 |
| ELEVATION COMMUNITY LAND TRUST | $200,000 |
| COLORADO WATER TRUST INC | $200,000 |
| COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATIO | $150,000 |
| WILLIAM J PALMER PARKS FOUNDATION I | $150,000 |
| CONSERVATION COLORADO EDUCATION FUN | $150,000 |
| NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATI | $150,000 |
| AMERICA SUCCEEDS | $150,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $3.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 83% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +31% since the first grant, against +8% for those funded once.
356 repeat relationships: 208 still active in FY2025, 148 since wound down; 112 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3.9M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- UOUNIVERSITY OF DENVER6× · 2020–2025 · $13M · revenue +22%
- CMCARDIGAN MOUNTAIN SCHOOL5× · 2020–2025 · $7.3M · revenue +75%
- TTThe Thacher School Inc4× · 2020–2023 · $4.3M · revenue +52%
Funded once
- GCGates Center for Regenerative Medicineone grant, 2020 · $2.3M
- GGGates Grubstake Fundone grant, 2020 · $1.2M
- TCTHE COLORADO PREVENTION CENTERgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $500k · revenue +65%
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.
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.
AIA Colorado,is the voice of the architecture profession in Colorado. Through advocacy, leadership development, education and resources for architects, the organization supports architecture professionals in designing a better world where…
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.
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…
To provide timely, credible and accessible analyses of fiscal and economic issues facing colorado to inform public policy debates and promote economic prosperity
To develop leaders that will become a strong, unified voice for agricultural issues.
The Boulder Watershed Collective is a 501c3 non-profit stakeholder-driven organization established to address forested watershed health,resiliency and stewardship. We have three program areas: ClimateAdaptation and Resilience Watershed…
Colorado nonprofit association strengthens colorado's nonprofits through education, connection and advocacy.
The Center for Nonprofit Excellence strengthens Southern Colorado's nonprofit sector through leadership and resource development, advocacy and collaboration. Together, with our partners, we are co-creating a vibrant community in the Pikes…
Conservation legacy engages future leaders who protect, restore, and enhance our nation's lands through community-based service.in 2024, conservation legacy engaged 2,524 participants who completed over 1.5 million service hours on public…
The colorado chamber of commerce mission is to enhance the business climate of the state of colorado by promoting a positive legislative and regulatory environment and providing programs and services for its members, economic education,…
Promote the general interest of daily, weekly, and monthly newspapers and online publications, improve editorials and business methods of daily and weekly newspapers, and advance those newspapers' usefulness and influence in the public…
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,…
How this is measured
678 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. 678 of the 974 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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.
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF DENVER ↗
- Who funds CARDIGAN MOUNTAIN SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds The Thacher School Inc ↗
- Who funds WILLIAM J PALMER PARKS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds LYRA ↗
- Who funds ROOTED ↗
- Who funds RIO GRANDE HEADWATERS LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds Children's Hospital Colorado Foundation ↗
- Who funds ELEVATION COMMUNITY LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds Rose Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds Aurora Public Schools Foundation ↗
- Who funds Gates Grubstake Fund ↗
- Who funds THE WESTERN STOCK SHOW ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GATES BIOMANUFACTURING FACILITY SUP FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BICYCLE COLORADO ↗
- Who funds HIGH LINE CANAL CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds COLORADO COALITION OF LAND TRUSTS ↗
- Who funds AMERICA SUCCEEDS ↗
- Who funds ROCKY MOUNTAIN PUBLIC MEDIA INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds URBAN LAND CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MONTEZUMA LAND CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds COLORADO SCHOOLS FUND ↗
- Who funds THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND ↗
- Who funds THE COLORADO PREVENTION CENTER ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL TRUST FOR LOCAL NEWS ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY BUILDERS ↗
- Who funds COLORADO WATER TRUST ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The Colorado Health Foundation · Rose Community Foundation · Anschutz Family Foundation · Boettcher Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · Caring for Colorado Foundation · El Pomar Foundation · The Denver Foundation · Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation · Kenneth Kendal King Foundation · Daniels Fund · The Colorado Trust
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Gates Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Gates Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Enterprise Community Partners Inc: 22% of income from government
- President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Gates Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Gates Family 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.
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