· Private foundation
Ruth a Carver 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k29 grants · $68k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $114k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $138k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ASPEN COMMUNITY CHURCH (5) | $86,000 |
| DANCE ASPEN INITIATIVE (4) | $52,210 |
| ASPEN INSTITUTE (MUSIC FEST) (5) | $46,575 |
| ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES | $25,000 |
| CRESTED BUTTE LAND TRUST (3) | $11,300 |
| CRESTED BUTTE CENTER FOR THE ARTS (3) | $10,650 |
| ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (3) | $10,500 |
| CORNELL COLLEGE | $10,000 |
| INNOCENCE PROJECT (2) | $9,000 |
| BUDDY PROGRAM (3) | $7,900 |
| ASPEN INSTITUTE (ASPEN WORDS) | $5,000 |
| ASPEN INSTITUTE SOCIETY OF FELLOWS (PRESIDENT'S SOCIETY) | $5,000 |
| CRESTE BUTTE MUSEUM | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $4,900 |
| LAST HOPE ANIMAL RESCUE | $2,500 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY22–24, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 87% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +22% since the first grant, against +16% for the ones you funded once.
37 repeat relationships — 23 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 32% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $217k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- CCCORNELL COLLEGE4× · 2020–2024 · $35k · revenue +15%
- CBCRESTED BUTTE LAND TRUST4× · 2021–2024 · $24k · revenue +94%
- AHASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY5× · 2020–2024 · $21k · revenue +62%
Funded once
- CCCORNELL COLLEGE COLLEGE HALL RENOVATION (3 & 4 OF 4)one grant, 2023 · $50k
- DADANCE ASPEN INITIATIVE (5)one grant, 2023 · $48k
- DADANCE ASPEN INITIATIVE (2)one grant, 2022 · $35k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Protecting the open land and special places of the roaring fork and middle colorado river valleys for wildlife, agriculture, and community forever.
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…
The aspen art museum is a non-collecting institution committed to advancing contemporary art and driving cultural change through exhibitions, critical dialogues, and community engagement. inspired by its alpine surroundings and aspen's…
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 empower visitors and locals to explore, learn about and protect the spectacular public lands of Southwest Colorado.
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…
Be a catalyst! Ignite our community's passion for nature and science.
The mission of estes valley land trust is to conserve land throughout the estes valley and surrounding areas for current and future generations.
Protection and preservation of the Marolt Park and open space, for community passive use and enjoyment. Protection and preservation of the Marolt Park and open space riparian zone for wildlife habitat. In 2024 we educated and informed the…
To advance the public understanding of science through lifelong discovery, exploration and education.
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,…
The aspen skiing company environment foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the enhancement and protection of the environmental quality of the roaring fork valley region. we support projects that promote environmental…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Aspen Institute Inc and the most unlike its peers is Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 35 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
44 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 44 of the 91 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES ↗
- Who funds ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET ↗
- Who funds CORNELL COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds THE BUDDY PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds CRESTED BUTTE LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds ANDERSON RANCH ARTS CENTER ↗
- Who funds Critter Crusaders of Cedar Rapids Inc ↗
- Who funds GREEN OUR PLANET ↗
- Who funds Aspen Journalism ↗
- Who funds CRESTED BUTTE MOUNTAIN BIKE ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds THE CENTER FOR THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds THE ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds ASPEN JUNIOR HOCKEY INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Aspen Community Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · Aspen Business Center Foundation · Alpenglow Foundation · The Thrift Shop · Zanin Family Foundation · Arches Foundation · The Thendara Foundation · Fred and Elli Iselin Foundation · The Fullerton Family Charitable Fund · John & Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Found · The Austin Memorial Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Ruth a Carver Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Archaeological Institute of America — 1% of income from government
- Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation — 0% of income from government
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.