Colorado · Nonprofit
BRINK LITERACY PROJECT
BRINK LITERACY PROJECT (Colorado) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,422,106 to it, the largest being CARING FOR DENVER FOUNDATION ($639,215). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $887k
What Brink Literacy Project does
Mission
Our nonprofits mission is: Brink Literacy Project harnesses storytelling as a powerful tool to change the lives of people living on the brink. With a holistic approach to healing, we simultaneously tackle the personal and external barriers that hold our communities back. By helping people rewrite negative personal narratives, find their passions and purpose, and connect to one another, Brink strives for a world where all peopleregardless of backgroundhave the drive and resilience to thrive.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The Literary Tarot engages people with literary classics and encourages community connection and dialogue through the intersection of tarot, art, and reading. Brink pulled together an all-star team of 78 beloved authors including Margaret Atwood, Stephen Fry, Roxane Gay, Patrick Rothfuss, and Celeste Ng who each paired one literary work with a card in the tarot deck. As with all of Brinks projects, 100% of the proceeds go directly to our nonprofit mission to change the world through storytelling.
$177,504 spent$127,766 earned by the program35% of program spendingF(r)iction is the center piece of Brinks education curriculum, as well as the publishing vehicle through which Brink mentors emerging writers (including students in our Frames Program andF(r)iction in the Classroom), amplifies diverse and underrepresented voices, encourages experimentation and genre-melding, and delves into important social issues. We publish 3 print issues annually, spanning a vibrant mix of literary fiction, genre work, creative nonfiction, poetry, and short comics. Our themed issues offer students multi-faceted views on a singular topic, activating critical thinking skills and opening the minds of readers and students. When we welcome many perspectives and publish diverse stories from many backgrounds, we foster a sense of empowered belonging and build a culture of positive and independent critical thinking. Our celebrity writers include international literary greats, such as Charlie Jane Anders, Faylita Hicks, Kwame Dawes, Rebecca Roanhorse Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Stephen Graham Jones, Carmen Maria Machado, Joyce Carol Oates, and K-Ming Chang, to name just a few. A whopping 50% of the content of each issue comes from the slush. Through this editorial ethos, not…
$156,718 spent$27,798 earned by the program31% of program spendingThe Frames Comic Program is a co-created, co-facilitated, creative course that utilizes therapeutic practices and the power of storytelling to help students discover their passions, purpose, and power. This 16-hour program helps our students shift the negative narratives that create destructive patterns, gain vital mental health and mindfulness tools, and build essential personal resilience, communication tools, and community connection. Students come to create their own graphic memoirs, all the while actively engaging in group therapeutic sessions, exploring past decisions in their lives in a safe and supportive space, and creating and mentally solidifying a positive vision for their recovery.
$89,467 spent17% of program spendingF(r)iction in the Classroom is an innovative, co-created, choose-your-own-adventure style curriculum designed to help students discover their passion, purpose, and power. The program is taught in partnership with middle- and high-school teachers, librarians, and after-school program providers. Students have the option to collaborate with F(r)iction editors and publish their creative work with Brink and in doing so improve their resumes, receive guidance for writing in higher education, and learn to articulate their passion powerfully and effectively.
$68,725 spent13% of program spendingBrinks publishing internship program seeks to bring underrepresented and diverse voices into the publishing industry itself. Through our fifteen-week program, interns learn the essential ins and outs of the industry and become crucial contributors to the positive social change Brink affects every day.
$21,404 spent4% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $513,818.
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 2020 to 2021, from $86k to $773k (+802%).
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: 2023 13% · 2024 40%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of BRINK LITERACY PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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
Danielle Hedlund
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $5k → $370k.
2 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 BRINK LITERACY PROJECT’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
BRINK LITERACY PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
84% 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 BRINK LITERACY PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 88% · 2021 82% · 2022 85% · 2023 55% — 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 BRINK LITERACY PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% 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
78% of BRINK LITERACY PROJECT's grant income comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $350k 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
BRINK LITERACY PROJECT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding BRINK LITERACY PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $60k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$60k
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 BRINK LITERACY 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
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 BRINK LITERACY 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 BRINK LITERACY PROJECT?
- BRINK LITERACY PROJECT (Colorado) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,422,106 to it, the largest being CARING FOR DENVER FOUNDATION ($639,215). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BRINK LITERACY PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $1,422,106 in grants to BRINK LITERACY PROJECT, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BRINK LITERACY PROJECT?
- CARING FOR DENVER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $639,215 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BRINK LITERACY 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 15 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing