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· Public charity
THE COLORADO EDUCATION INITIATIVE
Cei champions, empowers, and ignites colorado leaders to deliver on the promise of public education to develop thriving young people and flourishing communities.
$88k
Granted FY2023
3
Grants
1
Communities
$15k
Largest
01What you fund
01
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 90% of THE COLORADO EDUCATION INITIATIVE’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.
02beneath the categories
Past the labels — and the year it shifted
Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.
…and in their own words, year by year
2018
personalized learninghealthy awardsbocespdsacommon assignmentalp stipendentrepreneur partner
2019
sern cohortcohort stipenddenver subgrantlegacy examexam reimbursementcommon assignmentsassignments subgrant
2020
hti stipendsern stipendshti exemplarexemplar stipendsern stipend
2021
summer recoveryrecovery subimpact acceleratorrecovery subgrantsern stipend
2022
beacon policyfutures participationparticipation beaconjumpstart concurrentconcurrent enrollmentsern stipend
2023
—
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2023 · 3 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k1 grant · $8k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $30k
$15,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$7.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
- DURANGO SCHOOL DISTRICT 9R$15,000
- CANON CITY SCHOOLS$15,000
- COLORADO ASSOCIATION OF LATINO ADMINS AND SUPERINTENDENTS$7,500
02The need
04
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.
show:
Your human-services grants (FY21–21, $25k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15% — the area typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
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; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
05
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 13% of THE COLORADO EDUCATION INITIATIVE’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in CO; read by stated purpose it is 86% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.
THE COLORADO EDUCATION INITIATIVElessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 14% directed abroad (not shown)Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Your edge
repeat funding
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.
79%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$3.3M · 25 repeat orgs$890k to everyone else
25 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2023, 23 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
25
49
Total granted
$3.3M
$882k
Still filing today
0%
43%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $8k went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
EducationCommunity ImprovementArts & CulturePhilanthropyHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentOther
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
- CDCOLORADO DEPT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT2× · 2018–2019 · $579k
- FHFALCON HIGH SCHOOL6× · 2017–2022 · $437k
- SFSANTA FE TRAIL BOCES3× · 2017–2019 · $283k
Funded once
- MSMOMENTUM STRATEGY AND RESEARCHone grant, 2018 · $88k
- CSCOLORADO SUCCEEDSgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $67k · revenue +150%
- BVBOULDER VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT2× · 2018–2024 · $53k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
04Your field
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.
1
Pikes Peak School of Expeditionary Learning
Provide education for students in Pre-K through 8th grade, benefitting approximately 415 students.
Education
2
Ascend College Prep
Ascend College Prep is a public high school for 10-12th grade students in Colorado Springs and the surrounding area. Our Mission is to "Prepare and inspire students to become lifelong learners and responsible citizens through rigorous…
Education
3
Colorado League of Charter Schools
To improve student achievement by supporting colorados charter schools, positively reshaping the public school landscape, and advancing opportunities for innovation and expanded high-quality public school choice.
Education
4
Koson Schools
Charter school to provide education to students in grades K-12.
Education
5
New Legacy Charter School
Offer young parents a rigorous, relevant and engaging education so they are empowered with the skills needed to raise healthy children and graduate from high school prepared for success in college and careers.
Education
6
Goal Academy
GOAL Academy is an alternative education high school serving students across the state of Colorado. GOAL's Mission statement is to develop productive members of society. The Vision is helping all students achieve their full potential in a…
Education
7
Colorado Association of School
Empower colorado education leaders through advocacy, professional learning and networking to deliver on the promise of public education
—
8
Rise Colorado
Work to educate, engage and empower low income families and families of color to end educational inequality in our public school system.
Education
9
Pta Colorado Congress
Education
10
Colorado Early Colleges
Every student, regardless of background or skill level, will achieve mastery and will demonstrate that they can succeed in high school, in college, and in their chosen career. no exceptons, no excuses.
Education
11
Soar Charter School
SOAR is a public elementary charter school committed to providing exceptional educational opportunities to students in Far Northeast Denver. SOAR offers an innovative holistic approach to education that includes an extended school day an…
Education
12
Compass Montessori School
Compass Montessori Wheat Ridge is a PK-6 charter school that uses the Montessori philosophy to provide a positive learning experience for its students. The school uses multi-age classrooms with children acting as both students and…
Education
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Strive Preparatory Schools and the most unlike its peers is The Powerhouse. 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 19 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 12% of your grantees by number, and just 6% of your money.
Closures · last 5 years
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.
orgs you fund
0.0%0/85
the rest of the field
11%
2,549/22,291
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.
06the grantee network
30 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
29/30
Grantees still filing
21/30
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Other$3,804,761Education$280,986Arts & Culture$40,000Philanthropy$35,000Human Services$25,000Community Improvement$21,500Youth Development$6,000
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 MOMENTUM STRATEGY AND RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds COLORADO SUCCEEDS ↗
- Who funds THE POWERHOUSE ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST COLORADO ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF PUEBLO COUNTY ↗
- Who funds CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF PUEBLO ↗
- Who funds MOUNTAIN FAMILY CENTER - GRAND BEGINNINGS ↗
- Who funds YOU BE YOU EARLY LEARNING ↗
- Who funds AXIS INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY ↗
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.
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of ColoradoCA43.3× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado · The Denver Foundation · GenYOUTH Incorporated · Rose Community Foundation · Early Milestones Colorado · Round It Up America Inc · Caring for Colorado Centennial Fund · Mile High United Way Inc · Trailhead Institute · Caring for Colorado Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · Careerwise Colorado
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 organisation THE COLORADO EDUCATION INITIATIVE 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.
2024
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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. 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.
05Through Plinth
Through Plinth
Your grantmaking, live and operational
This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: PROWERS ECONOMIC PROSPERITY.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
insufficient risk
Limited financial data in public filings.
Track record & reputation
low risk
8 years of Form 990 filings, still active.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 840728957 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.
Governance
Live in Plinth
Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.
Compliance & sanctions
Live in Plinth
OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.
Program capacity
Live in Plinth
Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.
Live · Plinth’s real DD engine
Run the actual assessment on PROWERS ECONOMIC PROSPERITY, cold from public data.
Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.
Post-award monitoring · continuous checks
- Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue contracted over the period.
- On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 7% of their budget — diversified.
- Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.
What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.
Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing
Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to The Colorado Education Initiative?
Find your warmest path to The Colorado Education Initiative through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines