DENVER BOTANIC GARDENS INC

Programs

1. Capital improvements: capital expenses at the york street location are expensed when incurred as a result of the gardens' cooperative agreement with the city & county of denver. The city & county of denver owns the properties operated by the denver botanic gardens.capital expenses at the chatfield location are expensed when incurred as a result of the gardens' lease agreement with the army corps of engineers. Major capital expenditures in 2025 included the completion of construction on the new welcome center at chatfield farms and associated site improvements, representing the first phase of its master development plan.

   $6,082,403 spent
   14% of program spending

2. Visitor experience: in 2025, 1,415,654 individuals visited the denver botanic gardens. Seven exhibitions opened in the freyer newman center galleries, featuring national and international artists. An additional pop-up exhibition of work by students of the school of botanical art & illustration was staged on the robert andrew ming bridge. Blockbuster exhibition blue grass, green skies: american impressionism and realism from the los angeles county museum of art featured a selection of landscapes and urban scenes, complemented by large gold frames sited throughout the gardens highlighting scenic views. Exhibition highlights included nourished: works by jazz holmes and anna kaye: finding light, both presenting emerging colorado artists. Four traveling exhibitions toured to five venues nationwide, including spirit guides: fantastical creatures from the workshop of jacobo and mara angeles at fernbank museum of natural history in atlanta, georgia, and dallas arboretum in dallas, texas. Three artists in residence (laura ball, song kang and kelsey wilson) collaborated with gardens staff to create artwork exploring humanity's relationship with the natural world, culminating in original…

   $9,473,554 spent$14,269,479 earned by the program
   22% of program spending

3. Education and outreach: denver botanic gardens works to be a welcoming, diverse, and accessible place for the entire community, offering reduced-fee and free-access opportunities and community partnerships so that people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds can experience and benefit from its gardens, collections, and programs. In 2025, denver botanic gardens' education programs reached 39,000 school children, providing hands-on experiences, standards-based science lessons and the opportunity for children to explore the marvels of the plant world, both in person and virtually. About 20% of these children came from low-income schools and benefited from the gardens' educational access program. More than 13,000 people participated in family and children's programs while the mordecai children's garden continued to flourish. Adult classes and workshops served 30,000 registrants in a wide variety of content areas. The helen fowler library offered public, in-person access six days a week and electronic access throughout the year.outreach programs are a cornerstone in the gardens' mission and include horticulture therapy for the elderly, people with disabilities and cancer patients.…

   $8,072,158 spent$1,775,350 earned by the program
   19% of program spending

4. Operations and maintenance

   $7,023,354 spent
   17% of program spending

5. Horticulture, science and conservation: denver botanic gardens is responsible for living plant collections and horticultural garden displays, which include more than 57,000 living plants, belonging to 10,000+ species and more than 36,000 accessions. Our wide range of gardens illustrate the connection between plants and people. Our diverse collections feature plants from all corners of the world, from the tropics to the tundra. Distinctive gardens define and celebrate our regional sense of place in our unique high altitude, semi-arid climate and geography. As an accredited museum, our diverse collections are used for education, research and pure enjoyment. Among our living collections reside two national collections registered with the national plant collections network (pcn): oaks (quercus) and alpines of the world. Scientific research is closely linked to everything at the gardens. The core motivation of our scientific work is to investigate and explain biodiversity patterns and processes. We actively conduct scientific research, serve as a resource of scientific expertise and work to train the next generation of scientists. Our programs include population monitoring, seed…

   $6,800,326 spent
   16% of program spending

6. The mission of denver botanic gardens chatfield farms is to inspire the public to be good stewards of the environment by connecting people to our past, present and future relationships with plants of the rocky mountain region. Chatfield farms is a 700-acre native plant refuge and working farm located along the banks of deer creek in southern jefferson county. Construction for phase 1 of the master development plan and the 4.5-acre solar farm was completed in 2025. Eighteen million dollars in improvements were added, including the robert and judi newman welcome center and the borgen family market square. Attendance for daily visitation and special events was up 30,000 people to 233,300. The lavender festival hosted 9,500 attendees over two days. The corn maze welcomed 60,680 visitors during september and october. The pumpkin festival hosted more than 38,000 attendees, with 34,000 pumpkins purchased by visitors. Trail of lights attendance increased significantly to 47,380. Private events hosted 126 events, generating $622,450 in revenue. The horticulture department added 5,000 new accessions to the plant collections while also designing and installing new gardens for phase 1. More…

   $4,709,229 spent$3,047,394 earned by the program
   11% of program spending

The 6 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $42,161,024.