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Ness Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Ness Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$47k
Granted FY2024still arriving
6
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$15k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.

Education$248kArts & Culture$54kEnvironment$17kPhilanthropy$13kHealth$12kAnimals$12kHuman Services$5k
02FY2024 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k3 grants · $9k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $38k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$3.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CU FOUNDATION$15,000
THE SUMMIT FOUNDATION$12,500
BOULDER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART$10,000
Individual grant recipient$5,000
RAINBOW SOCKS$2,000
PROTECT OUR WINTERS$2,000
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 (FY21–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 96% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%ADVANCE ONTO COLLEGE: $50k → 10%EVERY MOTHER COUNTS: $12k → 17%BUTTERFLY PAVILION: $500 → 5%WALKING MOUNTAINS SCIENCE CENTER: $10k → 7%THE SUMMIT FOUNDATION: $13k → 9%WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY: $1k → 9%PEDALING MINDS: $5k → 12%THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF DENVER: $3k → 12%ADVANCE ONTO COLLEGE: $5k → 10%WALKING MOUNTAINS SCIENCE CENTER: $5k → 7%PEDALING MINDS: $5k → 12%DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION: $5k → 12%MY NATURE LAB: $2k → 12%DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION: $5k → 12%WOW CHILDREN'S MUSEUM: $1k → 12%DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE AND SCIENCE: $2k → 12%PEDALING MINDS: $691 → 12%DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE AND SCIENCE: $2k → 12%FRIENDS OF BCSIS: $40k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION: $30k → 12%MACKINTOSH ACADEMY BOULDER: $10k → 12%CU FOUNDATION: $15k → 12%FRIENDS OF BCSIS: $10k → 12%DENVER ART MUSEUM: $10k → 12%FRIENDS OF BCSIS: $5k → 12%DENVER ART MUSEUM: $5k → 12%FRIENDS OF BCSIS: $5k → 12%BOULDER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $10k → 12%BOULDER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $5k → 12%SNOW LION SCHOOL: $50k → 12%BOULDER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $5k → 12%SNOW LION SCHOOL: $10k → 12%PROTECT OUR WINTERS: $2k → 12%SNOW LION SCHOOL: $5k → 12%THE NEW LOCAL CO: $2k → 12%OUT BOULDER COUNTY: $5k → 12%RAINBOW SOCKS: $5k → 12%RAINBOW SOCKS: $3k → 12%RAINBOW SOCKS: $2k → 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.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$309k · 11 repeat orgs$38k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +11% since the first grant, against +8% for those funded once.

11 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

11
9

Total granted

$309k
$36k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+11%
+8%

Still filing today

91%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationAnimalsHealthEnvironmentOther
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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION
    2× · 2023–2024 · $45k · revenue +3%
  • BM
    BOULDER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
    3× · 2022–2024 · $20k · revenue +67%
  • DA
    DENVER ART MUSEUM
    2× · 2022–2023 · $15k · revenue +52%

Funded once

  • EVERY MOTHER COUNTS
    one grant, 2023 · $12k · revenue -13%
  • MA
    MACKINTOSH ACADEMY BOULDER
    one grant, 2023 · $10k
  • OB
    OUT BOULDER COUNTY
    one grant, 2022 · $5k
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
Museum of Western Colorado Inc

The museum of western colorado is an educational institution that collects, preserves, and interprets artifacts, specimens, and information concerning the cultural and natural history of western colorado and the contiguous area. we enhance…

Arts & Culture
2
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
3
Museum At Dinosaur Junction

The Museum at Dinosaur Junction was founded to preserve, study and celebrate fossil remains of dinosaurs and other life forms in the area of Dinosaur Junction near Wolcott, Colorado. In addition, The Museum at Dinosaur Junction leads the…

Arts & Culture
4
Dmns Foundation

To provide financial support to the denver museum of nature and science.

Arts & Culture
5
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
6
Cook Museum of Natural Science
Arts & Culture
7
Museum of Contemporary Art Denver

The museum of contemporary art denver is an innovative forum for contemporary art that inspires and challenges all audiences, creating understanding and dialogue about art of our time.

Arts & Culture
8
North Carolina Museum of Life & Science Inc

To create a place of lifelong learning where people, from young child to senior citizen, embrace science as a way of knowing about themselves, their community, and their world.

Arts & Culture
9
The Nevada Discovery Museum

Educating children and adults through interactive hands-on exhibits and educational programming.

—
10
Delaware Museum of Nature and Science Inc

The museum is an educational corporation formed to ignite a life-long passion for exploring, discovering, and valuing nature and science.

—
11
Children's Museum of Northern Colorado

To promote and elevate play in northern colorado, because childhood matters. a lot.

Arts & Culture
12
Climate Museum

The climate museum's mission is to inspire action on the climate crisis with programming across the arts and sciences that deepens understanding, builds connections, and advances just solutions.

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Childrens Museum of Denver Inc; the most unlike its peers is Rainbow Socks 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

18 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. 18 of the 22 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
18/18
Grantees still filing
12/18
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SNOW LION EDUCATION & FAMILY SERVICES INC: $65,000 · OtherSNOW LION EDUCATION & FAMILY SERVICES INCIndividual grant recipient: $60,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientMACKINTOSH ACADEMY BOULDER: $10,000 · OtherMACKINTOSH ACADEMY BOULDEROUT BOULDER COUNTY: $5,000 · Other+1 more: $2,000 · OtherADVANCE: $55,000 · EducationADVANCEUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION: $45,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATIONWALKING MOUNTAINS: $15,000 · EducationWALKING MOUNTAINSPEDALING MINDS INC: $10,691 · EducationPEDALING MINDS INCBOULDER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $20,000 · Arts & CultureBOULDER MUSEUM O…DENVER ART MUSEUM: $15,000 · Arts & CultureDENVER ART MUSEU…RAINBOW SOCKS INC: $9,500 · Arts & CultureRAINBOW SOCKS IN…Colorado Museum of Natural History: $3,500 · Arts & CultureColorado Museum …THE CHILDRENS MUSEUM OF DENVER INC: $3,000 · Arts & CultureTHE CHILDRENS MU…+2 more: $2,500 · Arts & CultureTHE SUMMIT FOUNDATION: $12,500 · PhilanthropyEVERY MOTHER COUNTS: $12,000 · HealthDENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION: $10,000 · AnimalsTHE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY: $1,000 · AnimalsROCKY MOUNTAIN BUTTERFLY CONSORTIUM: $500 · AnimalsPROTECT OUR WINTERS: $2,000 · Environment
Other$142,000Education$125,691Arts & Culture$53,500Philanthropy$12,500Health$12,000Animals$11,500Environment$2,000

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 budgetSNOW LION EDUCATION & FAMILY SERVICES INC: $65,000 over 3y, 5.3% of budgetADVANCE: $55,000 over 2y, 21% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION: $45,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBOULDER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $20,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetWALKING MOUNTAINS: $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetDENVER ART MUSEUM: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE SUMMIT FOUNDATION: $12,500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetEVERY MOTHER COUNTS: $12,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPEDALING MINDS INC: $10,691 over 2y, 7.1% of budgetDENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetRAINBOW SOCKS INC: $9,500 over 3y, 4.3% of budgetColorado Museum of Natural History: $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHILDRENS MUSEUM OF DENVER INC: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPROTECT OUR WINTERS: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NEW LOCAL CO: $1,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTHE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWOW CHILDREN'S MUSEUM WORLD OF WONDER: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetROCKY MOUNTAIN BUTTERFLY CONSORTIUM: $500 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.

Colorado Gives Founda…The Denver FoundationThe Colorado Health F…Xcel Energy FoundationNational Philanthropi…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Colorado Gives FoundationCO18.8× affinity7 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Colorado Gives Foundation · The Denver Foundation · The Colorado Health Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Ness Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Ness Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report 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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Ness Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Ness 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.

    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 22 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Ness 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