Colorado · Nonprofit
DENVER BAR FOUNDATION
DENVER BAR FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $309,913 to it, the largest being THE DENVER FOUNDATION ($165,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
Against its field
DENVER BAR FOUNDATION is better cushioned than half of the 1,392 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,392 crime & legal nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Legal Services Corporationshared funders
- Bardsley Foundationportfolio match
- Ray and Melly Kinnard Foundationportfolio match
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.
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.
73% of DENVER BAR FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% 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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $10k → $17k.
2 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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: $400k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Colorado Lawyer Trust Account Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money DENVER BAR FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of DENVER BAR 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 BAR FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder 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 DENVER BAR FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 63% · 2019 84% · 2020 89% · 2022 38% · 2023 52% — 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
50% of DENVER BAR FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 1 year after their first grant; 63% 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
59% of DENVER BAR 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 $127k that is directly attributable, 86% of it comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $183k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 8 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Legal Services Corporationshared fundersDC · backs 45 organizations that share your funders
- Bardsley Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Ray and Melly Kinnard Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- American Board of Trial Advocates - Chaptersportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Canvas Credit Unionportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- John and Vivian Sabel Familyportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Bruce Benson Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Gilman Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Bellco Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Faegre Drinker Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Community Shares of Colorado Incshared funderslocalCO · backs 34 organizations that share your funders · funds 71 organizations near you
- Denver Post Community Foundationshared funderslocalCO · backs 25 organizations that share your funders · funds 54 organizations near you
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like DENVER BAR FOUNDATION
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Denver Bar Association · exempt
- Waterman Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DENVER BAR 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds DENVER BAR FOUNDATION?
- DENVER BAR FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $309,913 to it, the largest being THE DENVER FOUNDATION ($165,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DENVER BAR FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $309,913 in grants to DENVER BAR FOUNDATION, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DENVER BAR FOUNDATION?
- THE DENVER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $165,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DENVER BAR 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 8funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing