Colorado · Nonprofit
CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE
CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE (Colorado) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,779,168 to it, the largest being THE COLORADO HEALTH FOUNDATION ($1,083,600). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $312k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $189k
What Creative Strategies for Change does
Mission
To mobilize arts and education for social justice
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
School programs: we are very proud to have increased our programming hours in title I schools, private schools and youth-driven organization, continuing old partnerships and creating new ones within the denver community. This year, we have facilitated over 180 hours of workshops (averaging around 15 hours per week), and reached 134 students. As with all of our programs, we work to serve and make our content accessible to the bipoc community in denver. We feel proud that across all of our youth programs, over 50% of our participants identify as bipoc.
$123,663 spent$38,619 earned by the program61% of program spendingCommunity programs: all community programs are donation based or sliding scale, and no one is turned away for lack of funds. Csc hosted our facilitator workshop weekend-long intensive twice, as well as consistent monthly community cypher open mics, and our monthly culturally responsive mental health resource, mental health mondays. Approximately 530 individuals were served across all community programs. Our facilitator workshop served 29 participants total. Of our surveyed participants: 100% felt an increase in confidence engaging in and facilitating social justice work; 89% felt more confident engaging in restorative practices. 100% felt the experience was meaningful for their work, family and community.
$51,215 spent$4,382 earned by the program25% of program spendingProfessional development and consulting: we facilitated several workshops for long term community partners. Partners built common vocabulary and frameworks for diversity, equity, inclusion and cultural responsiveness, individually and institutionally. Approximately 100 individuals were served.
$29,394 spent$11,439 earned by the program14% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $204,272.
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 2020 to 2021, from $99k to $887k (+797%).
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 3% · 2020 10% · 2021 11% · 2022 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE’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. 5 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.
Board chair
Christian Steward
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 4 funders, grant income rose $60k → $158k.
9 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE’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
CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
36% 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 CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 54% · 2019 42% · 2020 45% · 2021 76% · 2022 46% · 2023 62% — 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
63% of CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
99% of CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE's grant income comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $434k 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
CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $90k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$90k
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 CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE
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
36% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
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 CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE: 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 CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE?
- CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE (Colorado) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,779,168 to it, the largest being THE COLORADO HEALTH FOUNDATION ($1,083,600). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $1,779,168 in grants to CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE?
- THE COLORADO HEALTH FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,083,600 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CREATIVE STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE 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 Creative Strategies for Change →
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 16 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