Colorado · Nonprofit
BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION
BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $448,758 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($111,740). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $984k
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $449k
- Net assets
- $6.1M
What Boulder Public Library Foundation does
Mission
The boulder library foundation increases funding for services that help the people of boulder develop and grow by raising money, increasing awareness, advocating for the library, and encouraging community involvement.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In 2025, the boulder library foundation raised more than $500,000 and supported programming at the boulder public library with $350,000 in grants and direct funding. The foundation's grants supported outreach, literacy and arts programming. Its grants also funded archival collections acquisition and staffing as well as an oral history project at the carnegie library for local history. The foundation's direct programming included author talks, library staff appreciation and three short story dispensers.
$402,612 spentof which $325,228 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $402,612.
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 2018 to 2019, from $4.6M to $5.7M (+23%).
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 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
72% of BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Chief executive
Christopher A Barge
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $30k → $59k.
8 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 83% 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION’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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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
85% 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 59% · 2019 98% · 2020 41% · 2021 33% · 2022 39% · 2023 31% — 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
55% of BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION'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
83% of BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION'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 $78k that is directly attributable, 85% of it comes from funders outside Colorado, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $371k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION
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
52% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
53%
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
- Boulder Public Library District · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION?
- BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $448,758 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($111,740). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $448,758 in grants to BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $111,740 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION 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.
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 18 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