Colorado · Nonprofit
COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE
COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE (Colorado) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $761,625 to it, the largest being THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ($302,075). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $762k
- Net assets
- $-24598
What Coalition for the Upper South Platte does
Mission
Cusp seeks to protect the water quality and ecological health of the upper south platte watershed through the cooperative efforts of stakeholders with emphasis on community values and economic sustainability. Cusp is a watershed protection organization focused on water quality through forest health & fuels reduction, habitat improvement, invasive species management, environmental monitoring & education, conservation and sustainability programs.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Forest health and fuels mitigation - assess & mitigate fuels to create defensible space & reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires & loss of life & property. Operate fuels reduction program & three slash drop-off sites serving the watershed and adjacent communities. Also provide oversight & management of burn scar rehabilitation projects.
$378,096 spent$237,846 earned by the program26% of program spendingHabitat & recreation - accomplish habitat improvement with river/stream & riparian area restoration, erosion control & projects, trails construction & maintenance, and noxious weed management.
$868,704 spent$2,798 earned by the program59% of program spendingProgram operations oversight among all programs, including outreach and environmental education
$170,278 spent$20,369 earned by the program12% of program spendingConservatoin & sustainability
Monitor, conserve & sustan - perform surface water & soil sampling to assess run-off & in-stream water quality for long-terms studies, including mine run-off assessments. Also perform long-term study of forest material degradation.
$44,887 spent3% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,461,965.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.1M to $616k (−44%).
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: 2017 42% · 2018 66% · 2019 59% · 2020 62% · 2021 28% · 2022 75% · 2023 87% · 2024 81%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
83% of COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 8 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
John Geerdes
Executive director
Board chair
Swithin Dick
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $92k → $117k.
7 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 89% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $9k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Coalitions & Collaboratives Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE raised.
From the IRS filings of COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE’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
COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
89% 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 COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 75% · 2018 72% · 2019 73% · 2020 49% · 2021 64% · 2022 67% · 2023 91% — growing more concentrated.
“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
44% of COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
89% of COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE'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 $81k that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from funders outside Colorado, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $681k 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
COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE's revenue grew 45% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE
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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE: 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 COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE?
- COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE (Colorado) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $761,625 to it, the largest being THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ($302,075). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $761,625 in grants to COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE?
- THE NATURE CONSERVANCY is the largest funder on record, with $302,075 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COALITION FOR THE UPPER SOUTH PLATTE 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 2017–2024), and the filings of 11 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