Colorado · Nonprofit
ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC
ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC (Colorado) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,472,454 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($1,526,095). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 62
- Grants received
- $6.5M
- Net assets
- $3.3M
What ACLU Foundation of Colorado Inc does
Mission
To protect, defend, and extend civil rights and civil liberties of all people in Colorado through litigation, education, and outreach
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Litigation-The Colorado office receives approximately 2000 requests for assistance annually and investigates approximately 125 of these requests each year. Approximately 30 of these cases are litigated annually.
$1,240,453 spent53% of program spendingEducation-The Organization holds an annual meeting for members, and other community educational meetings, and provides speakers to numerous schools, community civic groups, and other organizations as requested. Outreach-By informing, engaging, and mobilizing people throughout the state, the Organization protects and promotes the principles enshrined in the Bill of Rights and protects and advances individual freedoms and equality.
$556,644 spent24% of program spendingAdvocacy-Non lobbying, non partisan research, analysis and communication about public policy
$538,156 spent23% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,335,253.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $4.2M to $6.3M (+53%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
98% of ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Deborah Richardson
Executive Director
Board chair
Beatriz Garcia Waddell
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $677k → $838k.
18 of 62 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.3M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC raised.
From the IRS filings of ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 62 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
69% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 46% · 2018 43% · 2019 42% · 2020 26% · 2021 30% · 2022 26% · 2023 22% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
48% of ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
61% of ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $2.6M that is directly attributable, 75% of it comes from funders outside Colorado, across 15 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 479 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 479 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Colorado
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- ACLU of Colorado · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC?
- ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC (Colorado) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,472,454 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($1,526,095). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC have?
- IRS filings report 62 organizations giving $6,472,454 in grants to ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC?
- COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,526,095 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ACLU FOUNDATION OF COLORADO INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Colorado. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds ACLU Foundation of Colorado →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 62 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing