Colorado · Nonprofit
COLORADO WATER TRUST
COLORADO WATER TRUST (Colorado) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,519,733 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($1,552,980). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $7.6M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $4.5M
- Net assets
- $7.5M
What Colorado Water Trust does
Mission
To restore water to colorado's rivers.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The Colorado Water Trust compensates water rights owners for projects that conserve, avoid, or retime water use, and safeguards that water in natural streams throughout the state for purposes of ecological integrity, community development, and agricultural resilience. It returned to streams over 2.9 billiongallons of water in 2024.
$663,315 spent$357,922 earned by the program49% of program spendingThe Colorado Water Trust assesses water rights portfolios for rights owners both private and public, and provides consultation services to determine when, where, and how much water is capable of being re-directed to remain in rivers without endangering the rights themselves.
$317,054 spent$45,537 earned by the program24% of program spendingThe Colorado Water Trust improves infrastructure to enable more water to flow through the riversand streams to which they're connected.
$362,237 spent$177,632 earned by the program27% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,342,606.
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 $2.1M to $8.3M (+301%).
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 10% · 2018 23% · 2019 12% · 2020 10% · 2021 22% · 2022 5% · 2023 2% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of COLORADO WATER TRUST’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $126k → $639k.
12 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 COLORADO WATER TRUST’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
COLORADO WATER TRUST has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% 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
41% 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 COLORADO WATER TRUST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 34% · 2019 23% · 2020 45% · 2021 57% · 2022 53% · 2023 43% — 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
53% of COLORADO WATER TRUST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
COLORADO WATER TRUST draws 76% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 22 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
COLORADO WATER TRUST runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,186 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like COLORADO WATER TRUST
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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 COLORADO WATER TRUST: 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 COLORADO WATER TRUST?
- COLORADO WATER TRUST (Colorado) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,519,733 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($1,552,980). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COLORADO WATER TRUST have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $4,519,733 in grants to COLORADO WATER TRUST, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COLORADO WATER TRUST?
- Walton Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,552,980 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COLORADO WATER TRUST 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 Colorado Water →
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 55 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