Colorado · Nonprofit
Boulder Opera
Boulder Opera (Colorado) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,148 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($7,592). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $168k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $16k
- Net assets
- $-7232
What Boulder Opera does
Mission
Organizations primary purpose: The Boulder Opera is committed to making opera accessible, inspiring and engaging to the community. Our goal is to develop new audiences for this old art form, enrich the lives of our community, and provide opportunity to local musicians. Our Family Series explore repertoire in reduced version with a narrator and an ensemble orchestra. And our full-length productions, which include standard, contemporary, and rarely performed works, are experimental in nature, seeking to reach and entertain new audiences and delight the old. Our outreach program is designed to inspire and educate the youg generation about opera and to make connections to other disciplines through our study guides and free workshops. Part III, Line 28: One outdoor concert (Opera in the Park) held with 529 attendees. Production of Xochitl and the Flowers presented at area elementary schools, 2,663 students in attendance. Gala concert and fundraiser with 80 attendees. A Full production of Puccinis Double Bill with 759 attendees. A full production Family Series: Pinocchio at Etown with 1336 attendees. Concert at Christ of Science Church with 95 attendees. Private House concert with 58…
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Not described on the e-filed return.
$114,012 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $114,012.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2018 to 2019, from $19k to $1k (−94%).
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.
70% of Boulder Opera’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Dianela Acosta
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $8k → $2k.
3 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 88% 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 Boulder Opera’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
Boulder Opera leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
88% 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 Boulder Opera.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 99% — broadly stable.
“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
88% of Boulder Opera'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 $2k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Colorado, across 1 state.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $14k 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
Boulder Opera has grown faster than half 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 Boulder Opera receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $20k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$20k
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 Boulder Opera
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.
Public support
100%
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 Boulder Opera: 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 Boulder Opera?
- Boulder Opera (Colorado) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,148 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($7,592). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Boulder Opera have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $16,148 in grants to Boulder Opera, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Boulder Opera?
- COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $7,592 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Boulder Opera 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 Boulder Opera →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 4 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