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Colorado · Nonprofit

Deer Hill Foundation

Deer Hill Foundation (Colorado) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,208,719 to it, the largest being ROBERT AND DANA EMERY FAMILY FOUNDATION ROCKEFELLER TRUST COMPANY ($815,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.5M
Funders on record
23
Grants received
$2.2M
Net assets
$905k
13/23 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 76%
01What it does

What Deer Hill Foundation does

Mission

To empower individuals to create authentic connections to self and community through wilderness and service experiences.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. As of January, 2025, Deer Hill Foundation and Deer Hill Expeditions merged as a single nonprofit organization bringing nature, connection and reciprocal service learning to the Mancos, CO area. In addition to teaching students to navigate the backcountry, Deer Hills programs create an environment where students navigate their own inner landscapes as well. In doing so, they discover resilience, self-confidence, and a profound sense of belonging. A large part of Deer Hills mission is reciprocal service and cultural exchange with long-standing relationships with Dine Nation, Hopi and Zuni Pueblos. In 2025 DHF supported 40 scholarships for summper programs, 58 scholarship participants in group programs, and 99 participant store supply rental scholarships, for a total value $234,377.

    $1,138,248 spent$735,756 earned by the program
    98% of program spending
  2. With so many families already living below the poverty line, Native peoples are especially vulnerable. Deer Hill Foundation continues to support Native Host families with food, livestock feed, tools and materials, and clothing.

    $20,372 spentof which $12,260 as grants
    2% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,158,620.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($233k) Expenses 100 ($210k) Net assets 100 ($514k)2018 Revenue 212 ($494k) Expenses 108 ($227k) Net assets 152 ($781k)2019 Revenue 361 ($841k) Expenses 504 ($1.1M) Net assets 124 ($638k)2020 Revenue 153 ($357k) Expenses 173 ($364k) Net assets 98 ($505k)2021 Revenue 95 ($221k) Expenses 62 ($130k) Net assets 116 ($596k)2022 Revenue 81 ($188k) Expenses 107 ($226k) Net assets 107 ($549k)2023 Revenue 66 ($154k) Expenses 120 ($252k) Net assets 88 ($450k)2024 Revenue 287 ($668k) Expenses 210 ($441k) Net assets 132 ($678k)2025 Revenue 662 ($1.5M) Expenses 625 ($1.3M) Net assets 176 ($905k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (662)Expenses (625)Net assets (176)Peer revenue range

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 $451k to $1.0M (+131%).

$514k
$781k
$646k
$517k
$596k
$549k
$451k
$1.0M
$1.0M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 1% · 2021 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

46% of Deer Hill Foundation’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 3,053 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$22k
’17
$267k
’18
−$219k
’19
−$7k
’20
$91k
’21
−$38k
’22
−$98k
’23
$227k
’24
$227k
’25
7.3
months of
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

James Simmons

Executive Director

Board chair

Nicol Gaffney

Board Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed555564468
Joined·+0+0+1+5+0+0+2+3
No longer listed·00142001
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $37k → $90k.

8 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 Deer Hill Foundation’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

Deer Hill Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

45% 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 Deer Hill Foundation.

37%
largest funder
80%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 43% · 2019 88% · 2020 80% · 2021 83% · 2022 49% · 2023 56% — 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

29% of Deer Hill Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

Deer Hill Foundation draws 97% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 10 states in all.

WA
NY
MA
OH
CT
CA
CO
MD
DE
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Colorado out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $986k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Deer Hill Foundation has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,645 philanthropy nonprofits its size.

Operating margin15% · above the median
Months of reserve7.3mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)27% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,645 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Deer Hill Foundation

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

88% of spending goes to programs.

Program 88%Management 9%Fundraising 3%

Governance

7
board members
86%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

36%

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 Deer Hill Foundation: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Deer Hill Foundation?
Deer Hill Foundation (Colorado) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,208,719 to it, the largest being ROBERT AND DANA EMERY FAMILY FOUNDATION ROCKEFELLER TRUST COMPANY ($815,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Deer Hill Foundation have?
IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $2,208,719 in grants to Deer Hill Foundation, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Deer Hill Foundation?
ROBERT AND DANA EMERY FAMILY FOUNDATION ROCKEFELLER TRUST COMPANY is the largest funder on record, with $815,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Deer Hill Foundation 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 2017–2025), 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing