How much does Merriman Family Foundation give?

Merriman Family Foundation reported 15 grants totaling $39,750 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 11 and 14 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Merriman Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Religion (18%), Philanthropy (16%), Health (14%).

Who are Merriman Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Celebration Community Church ($66k), Colorado Families for Hands and Voices ($29k), Manna - the Durango Soup Kitchen ($19k).

Does Merriman Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 33% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Merriman Family 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 Merriman Family Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Colorado Gives Foundation, Anschutz Family Foundation, The Denver Foundation.

Where is Merriman Family Foundation based?

Merriman Family Foundation is based in CO.

Merriman Family Foundation

Merriman Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Merriman Family Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$40k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$8k

Largest

01What it funds

0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Religion$68kPhilanthropy$59kHealth$52kEducation$47kFood & Nutrition$47kInternational$35kArts & Culture$19kHuman Services$16kOther$0

02FY2025 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$2,000

Median grant

States reached

$670k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
COAL CREEK MEALS ON WHEELS	$7,500
CELEBRATION COMMUNITY CHURCH	$6,500
MANNA SOUP KITCHEN	$5,000
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF FREDERICK COUNTY	$5,000
RISING TIDE CRISFIELD	$2,500
HOOKER COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION	$2,500
COMMUNITY MINISTRY	$2,500
PACE CENTER FOR GIRLS	$2,000
ADAPTIVE SPORTS ASSOCIATION	$1,500
ST JUDE CHILDRENS HOSPITAL	$1,000
FLC FOUNDATION	$1,000
LITTLE WARRIOR FOUNDATION	$1,000
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF SW COLORADO	$1,000
COMPANEROS	$500
JAMES L QUINT FOUNDATION	$250

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 (FY20–25, $18k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 44% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

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.

87%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$279k · 22 repeat orgs$43k to everyone else

22 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 14 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$279k

$32k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+18%

+31%

Still filing today

59%

50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 64% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $12k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

HealthFood & NutritionHuman ServicesArts & CultureYouth DevelopmentAnimalsOther

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

CF
COLORADO FAMILIES FOR HANDS AND VOICES
5× · 2017–2021 · $29k · revenue +14%
MT
MANNA - THE DURANGO SOUP KITCHEN
7× · 2018–2025 · $19k · revenue +559%
CF
COMMUNITY FOOD SHARE INC
5× · 2020–2024 · $15k · revenue +18%

Funded once

CF
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LINCOLN COUNTY
one grant, 2023 · $5k
FB
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF ISLAMORADA
one grant, 2022 · $3k
SM
ST MATTHEWS HOUSE INCgraduated
one grant, 2020 · $3k · revenue +205%

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.

The Colorado Health Foundation

Health

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

To cure cf and provide all people with cf the opportunity to lead long, fulfilling lives by funding research and drug development, partnering with the cf community, and advancing high-quality, specialized care.

Health

The Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Inc

Susan g. komen has an unmatched, comprehensive 360-degree approach to fighting breast cancer across all fronts and supporting millions of people in the u.s. and in countries worldwide. we advocate for policies to protect patients, drive…

Health

The Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Fdn Group

Susan g. komen 's mission is to save lives by meeting the most critical needs in our communities & investing in breakthrough research to prevent & cure breast cancer.

—

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc

The mission of dfci is to provide expert, compassionate, and equitable care to children, adults, and their families, while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of cancer and related diseases. we train new…

Health

The Food Bank for Larimer County

To provide food to all in need through community partnerships and hunger relief programs. Our vision is a hunger-free Larimer County.

Food & Nutrition

Colorado Access Foundation

Health

Lung Cancer Research Foundation

The mission of the lung cancer research foundation is to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of lung cancer.

Health

Project Drawdown

Project drawdown's mission is to drive meaningful climate action by advancing science-based solutions and strategies. project drawdown's work is focused on three pillars: science - advancing science-based climate solutions and strategies;…

Education

City Harvest Inc

To end hunger in communities throughout new york city. (see schedule o)to end hunger in communities throughout new york city. we do this through food rescue and distribution, education, and other practical, innovative solutions.

Food & Nutrition

Targeting Resistance in Cancer Cooperative

Health

Target Als Foundation Inc

Our mission is to break down barriers to als research to find effective treatments. by uniting academia, the pharma and biotech industry, government, venture capital, related nonprofits, and the als community, we aim to overcome the…

Education

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Food Share Inc; the most unlike its peers is Soar. 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 51 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)

30/31

Grantees still filing

20/31

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$211,040Philanthropy$61,200Health$41,000Food & Nutrition$27,500Human Services$18,000Arts & Culture$13,500Youth Development$6,500

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.

Colorado Gives FoundationCO19× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Colorado Gives Foundation · Anschutz Family Foundation · The Denver Foundation · Trailhead Institute · El Pomar Foundation · The Colorado Health Foundation · Amg Charitable Gift Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

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

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

8report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%

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 Merriman Family’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