Colorado · Nonprofit
Denver Architecture Foundation
Denver Architecture Foundation (Colorado) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $455,351 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($301,829). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 68% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $532k
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $455k
- Net assets
- $275k
What Denver Architecture Foundation does
Mission
The Denver Architecture Foundation (DAF) inspires people to explore our dynamic city, experience the importance of design to our quality of life and envision an exceptional future for Denver.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Program Service Accomplishments 2025 Denver Architecture Foundation In 2025, the Denver Architecture Foundation designed and produced year-round programming to reveal the evolving character of our city and to foster thoughtful dialogue about its future. We offered dozens of educational experiences, including expert-led walking tours, the Beyond the Faade series, lectures and panel discussions, the multi-day Doors Open Denver festival, and robust youth education programming. Our programs connect people to Denvers cultural ecosystem and build understanding on both the history of Denver and where the city is headed. Denver Architecture Foundation further advanced its role as a convener of important conversations by diverse thought leaders with the creation of an annual lecture series, honoring the leadership and contributions of Denver architect and urban planner Alan Golin Gass. During Doors Open Denver in September, we explored the connection between the buildings in the city and the natural world through our theme Architecture and Nature in Harmony. Visitors experienced behind-the-scenes looks of well-known cultural spaces and hidden gems throughout the city through over 120…
$318,699 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $318,699.
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 2024 to 2025, from $187k to $286k (+53%).
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 14% · 2018 14% · 2021 37% · 2022 13% · 2023 3% · 2024 17% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of Denver Architecture Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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
Margaret Touborg Jebsen
Exec Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income fell $36k → $27k.
3 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 68% 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 Denver Architecture 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
Denver Architecture Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
68% 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 Denver Architecture Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 72% · 2021 61% · 2022 64% · 2023 97% — 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
100% of Denver Architecture Foundation's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 67% 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
68% of Denver Architecture Foundation'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 $148k that is directly attributable, 76% of it comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $308k 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
Denver Architecture Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Denver Architecture Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $135k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$85k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$50k
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 Denver Architecture 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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
84%
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 Denver Architecture 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.
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 Denver Architecture Foundation?
- Denver Architecture Foundation (Colorado) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $455,351 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($301,829). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 68% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Denver Architecture Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $455,351 in grants to Denver Architecture Foundation, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Denver Architecture Foundation?
- COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $301,829 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Denver Architecture 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.
Play a game about who funds Denver Architecture →
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 9 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