Colorado · Nonprofit
DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL
DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL (Colorado) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,361,294 to it, the largest being Rose Community Foundation ($2,069,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.1M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $4.4M
- Net assets
- $287k
What Denver Early Childhood Council does
Mission
The vision of denver's early childhood council (the "council") is that denver is a community where the diverse needs of all children and their families are supported. The council elevates the early childhood field through innovative and inclusive leadership, services and solutions. Our goal is to see that every young child across denver has access to quality child care, early learning, social-emotional supports and health services that help them enter school ready to succeed. We do this by helping caregivers, teachers, and others provide the highest quality services possible. We connect different aspects of the early childhood system to make sure policies and practices meet all growth and developmental needs of young children.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
QUALITY INITIATIVES - The Classroom Coaching and Quality Navigation teams supported 405 child care sites and 1,588 classrooms, impacting over 20,000 children across the city of Denver. 93% of program participants rated classroom coaching as vital to their sites success. In partnership with Denver Preschool Program, DECC launched a collaboration focusing on improving child health and development within Colorados Universal Preschool Program. Key areas include: oral health integration in classrooms and home settings, screening and referral services to support early detection and intervention for improved child outcomes, and capacity-building to help local communities support child care programs in meeting the new Healthy Development Quality Standards. DECCs Quality Navigation team played a pivotal role in administering funds from the State of Colorado to ensure that child care programs had the resources needed to enhance their services and improve outcomes for the children they serve. By working closely with providers, Navigators helped allocate funding for urgent needs such as curriculum materials, health and safety improvements, capital upgrades, technology, and workforce…
$1,949,568 spent$13,805 earned by the program62% of program spendingCAREER PATHWAYS: The Career Coaching program played a pivotal role in addressing the challenges faced by early childhood professionals. It served as a significant resource for recruiting new talent into the field while also providing support to retain the existing workforce by working 1-1 with 538 individuals, with 80% of participants rating career coaching from the Council as imperative to the workforce. The Council continued to offer high-quality training for early childhood professionals, with a remarkable 70% surge in participation of professional development trainings compared to the previous fiscal year. This growth reflects the increasing demand for professional development opportunities among ECE providers and underscores the value of the Councils offerings in strengthening the early childhood workforce. The introduction of training programs in additional languages, such as Dari and Farsi, contributed to an 85% increase in non-English training sessions, broadening the reach of our services to a more diverse group of ECE professionals and fostering greater inclusivity within the community. The Conscious Discipline Training equipped educators with practical strategies for…
$903,165 spent$613,197 earned by the program29% of program spendingSYSTEMS BULDING: In the Councils Early Childhood Systems Building & Advocacy efforts, we worked to improve access to high-quality education, support providers, and advise policies that benefit children and families across Denver and beyond. Our team actively engaged in statewide and local initiatives to shape a stronger early childhood system. The Council collaborated with over 110 partners from government, nonprofit, and business sectors to tackle key challenges, fostering cross-sector cooperation. As part of the Early Childhood Council Leadership Alliance, the Council coordinated with councils across Colorado to push for a stronger statewide system. DECC also supported local and statewide legislation and advocated for federal investment in early care, child abuse prevention, the Strengthening Families Act, and the Child Tax Credit. DECC hosted the Denver Director Equity and Advocacy Group, providing directors with a platform to address key issues. Through this work, we facilitated discussions between community providers and the governors office on the implementation of Colorado Universal Preschool. DECC staff led efforts to support career navigation for early childhood…
$297,906 spent9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,150,639.
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 2022 to 2023, from $1.6M to $879k (−46%).
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 77% · 2018 62% · 2019 69% · 2020 66% · 2022 91% · 2023 89% · 2024 82% · 2025 75%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Shelby Mattingly
CEO
Board chair
Priscilla Hopkins
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 5 funders, grant income fell $749k → $385k.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL’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 EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
71% 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 EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 83% · 2018 86% · 2019 37% · 2020 60% · 2021 38% · 2022 71% · 2023 51% — 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 EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL's funders are still giving 3 years 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
51% of DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL'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 $2.1M that is directly attributable, 98% of it comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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 EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL: 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 EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL?
- DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL (Colorado) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,361,294 to it, the largest being Rose Community Foundation ($2,069,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $4,361,294 in grants to DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL?
- Rose Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $2,069,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DENVER EARLY CHILDHOOD COUNCIL 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 Early Childhood Council →
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 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