Colorado · Nonprofit
Adaptive Adventures
Adaptive Adventures (Colorado) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,872,905 to it, the largest being Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Charitable Service Trust ($841,650). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 47
- Grants received
- $2.9M
- Net assets
- $497k
What Adaptive Adventures does
Mission
Provide progressive outdoor adventures to individuals with physical disabilities and their families, regardless of location, equipment needs, or economic status.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Adaptive Adventures is redefining whats possible for individuals with children,adults and veterans with physical disabilities and their families through inclusive, mobile, and family-centered outdoor recreation. Unlike traditional adaptive sports agencies, Adaptive Adventures serves as the inclusive and accessible side of the outdoor recreation industry, bringing the equipment, expertise, and community directly to those who need it most. Adaptive Adventures trains and equips local mentors, clinicians, outfitters, guides, and organizations to sustain programs and normalize adaptation in recreation. With more than 18 fully equipped trailers and satellite programs reaching over 45 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada, our team removes barriers to participation and ensures that every individual, regardless of ability, geography, or income, can experience the freedom of the outdoors.In 2025, our small but mighty staff delivered 635+ programs, serving 4,200+ unique participants with over 11,200+ experiences. Volunteers contributed 9,930+ volunteer hours. Across cycling, climbing, paddlesports, skiing, and more, more than 250 years of combined…
$1,502,637 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,502,637.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2021 to 2022, from $366k to $1.0M (+179%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 52% · 2021 57% · 2022 37% · 2025 36%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of Adaptive Adventures’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (51% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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
Elder Chelsea
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $141k → $623k.
12 of 47 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of Adaptive Adventures’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 47 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
Adaptive Adventures has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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
92% 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 Adaptive Adventures.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 71% · 2018 76% · 2019 57% · 2020 54% · 2021 36% · 2022 38% · 2023 24% — 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
37% of Adaptive Adventures's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% 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
Adaptive Adventures draws 91% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
Adaptive Adventures runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,002 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,002 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Adaptive Adventures receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $6.5M on record.
- Department of Veterans Affairs$6.5M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Adaptive Adventures
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
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
59%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Adaptive Adventures: 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 Adaptive Adventures?
- Adaptive Adventures (Colorado) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,872,905 to it, the largest being Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Charitable Service Trust ($841,650). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Adaptive Adventures have?
- IRS filings report 47 organizations giving $2,872,905 in grants to Adaptive Adventures, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Adaptive Adventures?
- Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Charitable Service Trust is the largest funder on record, with $841,650 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Adaptive Adventures 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 Adaptive Adventures →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 47 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