Colorado · Nonprofit
BRIGHT FUTURES
BRIGHT FUTURES (Colorado) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,712,866 to it, the largest being TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ($1,038,573). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.6M
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $3.7M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Bright Futures does
Mission
Bright Futures provides resources to improve the lives of children and families. Bright Futures works to increase the quality, accessibility and availability for early care and education in san miguel, ouray, montrose, delta and san juan counties. Bright Futures offers aligned, collaborative and integrated services across key systems of family support and early childhood care and education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Bright Futures is dedicated to improving the lives of children and families in western colorado through integrated services in early childhood care, education, and family support. Operating as an early childhood council, family resource center, and the local coordinating organization (lco) for universal preschool (upk), the organization serves delta, montrose, ouray, san miguel, and san juan counties.key accomplishments in the past fiscal year:1) early childhood quality & workforce development: 80% of licensed childcare providers engaged in quality improvement through colorado shines. 93 early childhood teachers received pyramid coaching, positively impacting 1,337 children. The organization provided 69 professional development opportunities for early educators.2) family support services: tailored programs strengthened families and improved outcomes for vulnerable children (birth-18). Through parents as teachers (pat), 364 home visits were conducted, and 243 parents attended workshops. The integrated support services team served 39 children with a holistic, child-centered approach. $37,589 was distributed to 8 families through a "flex funding" program to offer basic needs such as…
$2,360,340 spentof which $936,574 as grants$1,787 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,360,340.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $881k to $1.3M (+47%).
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 75% · 2021 57% · 2022 75% · 2023 68% · 2024 74% · 2025 78%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of BRIGHT FUTURES’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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
Kathleen Merritt
Executive director
Board chair
Matthew Bayma
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $177k → $620k.
3 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 BRIGHT FUTURES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 22 of 23 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
BRIGHT FUTURES 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
58% 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 BRIGHT FUTURES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 40% · 2019 38% · 2020 33% · 2021 34% · 2022 46% · 2023 33% — 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
35% of BRIGHT FUTURES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
98% of BRIGHT FUTURES's grant income comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
BRIGHT FUTURES is better cushioned than half of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding BRIGHT FUTURES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $453k on record.
- FOOD SERVICE$254k
- WELFR & SIMLR ASST GRANTS$199k
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 BRIGHT FUTURES
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
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 BRIGHT FUTURES: 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 BRIGHT FUTURES?
- BRIGHT FUTURES (Colorado) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,712,866 to it, the largest being TELLURIDE FOUNDATION ($1,038,573). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BRIGHT FUTURES have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $3,712,866 in grants to BRIGHT FUTURES, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BRIGHT FUTURES?
- TELLURIDE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,038,573 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BRIGHT FUTURES 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 23 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