Colorado · Nonprofit
BLUE RISING
BLUE RISING (Colorado) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $305,372 to it, the largest being DANIELS FUND ($100,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $276k
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $305k
- Net assets
- $30k
What Blue Rising does
Mission
We believe young people should be able to take healthy risks, explore life and make mistakes safely without life-altering consequences that change their futures. We envision a world where kids can enter adulthood without the emotional scars and trauma that are part of struggliing to recover from a high-potency thc marijuana addiction, have friends or family members die from fentanyl poisoning, and experiencing the anxiety and grief that comes from the ever-present threat of gun violence. This generation of kids is facing new and complex challenges that threaten the trajectory of their lives. The risk landscape has changed. Commonsense policies and programs need to be developed, and adapted to keep up the fast-paced changes.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Blue Rising held 3 regional nonpartisan lunches covering 5 counties- adams, jefferson, douglas, el paso, and teller. More than 50 elected officials and community leaders participated together with content experts, youth and families. Br briefed and partnered with 10 new organizations, ensuring they understand the correlation to the harms of high-potency thc marijuana, fentanyl poisonings risks and where young people are able to access dangerous drugs through social media. Br worked to ensure that the school of public heath continued receiving funding to support their statewide education campaign. As a direct result of br's previous years' policy efforts to reduce teen access to marijuana,the number of medical marijuana cards for 18-20 year olds has dropped over four years. Blue Rising also works to educate policy makers from local to statewide on the issues that are impacting the lives of teens and young adults.
$153,896 spent57% of program spendingBlue Rising (br) reached 65,000 students with important information about the risks and and prevalance of fentanyl through the "you can't outsmart fentanyl" education program in the 2024-2025 academic year. As part of the program, br distributed 35,400 education materials to students at 13 colleges and 10 high schools, ran a social media campaign geofencing campuses that generated 2 million exposures and 3,195 click interactions. Additionally br trained 165 students and faculty on the warning signs of fentanyl poisoning and how to intervene and reached 525 students through presentations and on-campus student events.
$93,417 spent34% of program spendingEngage, train and mobilize youth and families. Blue Rising conducts trainings to impacted youth and families on how to effectively tell their stories to policy makers and the media to shift and inform state wide policy. The issues that young people are facing range from addiction, mental health issues, social media harms, and loss of a child to these harms.
$25,000 spent9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $272,313.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 2022 to 2023, from $18k to $26k (+49%).
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.
100% of BLUE RISING’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 3 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.
Board chair
Deserai Crow
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $9k → $181k.
5 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 BLUE RISING’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
BLUE RISING leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
59% 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 BLUE RISING.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 100% · 2023 28% — 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.
Where its funders are
100% of BLUE RISING's grant income comes from Colorado funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $130k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
BLUE RISING has grown faster than three-quarters of the 22,812 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like BLUE RISING
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
100% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
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
- Blue Rising Together · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BLUE RISING: 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 BLUE RISING?
- BLUE RISING (Colorado) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $305,372 to it, the largest being DANIELS FUND ($100,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BLUE RISING have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $305,372 in grants to BLUE RISING, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BLUE RISING?
- DANIELS FUND is the largest funder on record, with $100,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BLUE RISING 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 Blue Rising →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2022–2024), and the filings of 8 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