Colorado · Nonprofit
ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS
ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS (Colorado) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,171,833 to it, the largest being THE SIMONS FOUNDATION INC ($872,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.4M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $7.7M
What Aspen Center for Physics does
Mission
Aspen Center for Physics is a scientific organization which promotes organized research in physics, astrophysics, and related fields through programs of individual and collaborative research, workshops, and conferences, as well as promotes the education of the general public through public lectures and other activities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Summer and winter programs: since its inception in 1962, Aspen Center for Physics has provided a unique physical and scientific environment ideally suited for stimulating interactions, collaborations, and innovation in physics research. For 16 weeks each summer, more than 500 leading international researchers, freed from the usual constraints and distractions of their home institutions, come to aspen to engage in research at the forefront of their fields. Research is conducted: (a) in the context of workshops in areas at the forefront of physics research; (b) in small groups focused on specific projects; or, (c) by individual investigators carrying out their own research. The scientific programs emphasize open problems at the cutting edge and are designed to maximize informal interactions within each area and cross-fertilization between different areas. While continuing to provide leadership in the central areas of physics (particle physics, astrophysics, and condensed matter physics), Aspen Center for Physics has been open to new directions in physics as well as to science at the interface between physics and other disciplines (biology, chemistry, engineering, material science,…
$3,709,597 spentof which $1,005,041 as grants$1,937,371 earned by the program99% of program spendingOutreach program: Aspen Center for Physics outreach program includes many options and avenues for the public to become informed about cutting-edge physics research, and to engage children and youth in opportunities for further education in the sciences. (1) public lectures. A core outreach activity for the center. Renowned physicists deliver winter and summer lectures in aspen venues delineating their current research or current scientific topics of general interest. Summer attendance at 10 lectures was 1,163 people. Winter attendance at 8 lectures was 861. (2) high school mentor program. Acp hires rising senior physics students from 3-5 valley high schools to work for a summer week at the center to see what theoretical physicists do and to chat with 2 or 3 physicists about college, careers, and/or science. About 14 physicists and students participated in 2024. (3) high school monthly radio show--radio physics. Valley high school physics students from 3-5 schools interview physicists on a monthly radio show. This introduces the students to science, public speaking, and informs the listening public about current physics topics. There were 8 student and physicist participants for…
$31,515 spent1% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,741,112.
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 $6.8M to $8.4M (+24%).
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: 2017 25% · 2018 18% · 2019 22% · 2020 25% · 2021 9% · 2022 20% · 2023 25% · 2024 13% · 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
31% of ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $40k → $231k.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 79%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 63% · 2018 60% · 2019 77% · 2020 73% · 2021 52% · 2022 40% · 2023 43% — 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
63% of ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS draws 66% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $130k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 6 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 science & tech nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.3M on record.
- National Science Foundation$4.1M
- Department of Defense$125k
- Department of Energy$90k
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 ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS
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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS: 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 ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS?
- ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS (Colorado) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,171,833 to it, the largest being THE SIMONS FOUNDATION INC ($872,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $2,171,833 in grants to ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS?
- THE SIMONS FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $872,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASPEN CENTER FOR PHYSICS 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 Aspen Center for Physics →
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 16 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing