Colorado · Nonprofit
Athena Project
Athena Project (Colorado) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $242,751 to it, the largest being BONFILS-STANTON FOUNDATION ($67,500). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $199k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $243k
- Net assets
- $106k
What Athena Project does
Mission
Athena Project amplifies the voices of women and underrepresented genders through the arts.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Curating Art for Impact offers unique experiential art curated/produced in collaboration w/community partners, with a goal of paying women artists. artBURSTs, a program of Curating Art for Impact, brings more pop-up performances to underserved communities with limited arts access. Pop-up performances include musicians in the backs of pedicabs and visual art work on a mobile billboard truck, in addition to pop up stages occurring where dancers, spoken word artists, and comedians perform.
$69,264 spent66% of program spendingGirls Create is a summer camp series that empowers young women, ages 12-16, to become future artistic leaders. Girls explore art forms including playwriting, comedy, fashion design, and self-expression through art. Professionals teach, guest artists share their expertise, and mentors from the community guide and encourage empowering girls to lead and to effect change in themselves and others through creative learning. Each week-long session culminates with a performance or exhibit of the participants work with friends, family, and the public.
$21,870 spent$7,103 earned by the program21% of program spendingRead & Rant is Athena Project's monthly book club exploring plays written primarily by women and underrepresented genders. Led by an experienced dramaturg, we read two scripts each month and meet every third Monday online via Zoom. We explore brand new works with playwrights in the room and we discuss what makes a good script, how it affects us, and how it links to the larger world.
$12,130 spent11% of program spendingCreative Arts Workshops offers dynamic sessions in a variety of artistic disciplines to encourage girls and nonbinary youth as well as women 55+ to tap into their creativity, gain confidence and find their artistic voice. Offerings include Rebel Arts which centers women ages 55+, providing professional guidance & instruction in various artistic disciplines, including visual art, storytelling & movement; G.R.R.L.S Create (Grow, Rise, Rebel, Lead, Shine) centers theatre, creative writing, fashion, poetry, and comedic disciplines, giving middle school girls and nonbinary youth a chance to nurture empathy for themselves and others while gaining mental health and mindfulness tools for resilience; and monthly Artfully Minded workshops, unleashing creativity for youth 8-18 yrs to lead and effect change in themselves and others through creative learning. Workshops are offered in the following performing art forms: spoken word, poetry, music, playwriting, acting/monologues, stand-up, and dance. Workshops are almost always free or low cost to participants.
$2,316 spent2% of program spendingComics Sound Off is a new monthly community group of comedians, led by Janae Burris, that meets virtually to learn from each other, receive training to grow and celebrate our voices in comedy. Were creating a space where women, girls, and underrepresented genders can connect and feel truly supported.
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $105,580.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $69k to $116k (+67%).
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: 2024 49% · 2025 34%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of Athena Project’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 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 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $14k → $20k.
5 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 Athena Project’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 10 of 11 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
Athena Project has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% 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
62% 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 Athena Project.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 93% · 2020 65% · 2021 36% · 2022 41% · 2023 66% — 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
40% of Athena Project's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
51% of Athena Project'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 $120k that is directly attributable, 57% of it comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $123k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Athena Project has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Athena Project receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
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 Athena Project
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
54% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 Athena Project: 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 Athena Project?
- Athena Project (Colorado) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $242,751 to it, the largest being BONFILS-STANTON FOUNDATION ($67,500). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Athena Project have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $242,751 in grants to Athena Project, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Athena Project?
- BONFILS-STANTON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $67,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Athena Project 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 Athena Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 11 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