Colorado · Nonprofit
DENVER LIONS FOUNDATION
DENVER LIONS FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $472,776 to it, the largest being SCHLESSMAN FOUNDATION INC ($407,793). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $183k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $473k
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Denver Lions Foundation does
Mission
To assist the needy with eyeglasses, personal assistance,hearing assistance, and sight screening for low income children and various schools.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The foundation provides eyeglasses each month to between 15 and 20 lower income to indigent individuals. The foundation also provides eye exams to needy individuals through an ophthamologist and the denver rescue mission. The foundation also helps fund eye sight exams at various schools attended by children from lower income families. Over 2000 children are tested in this program known as kidsight.
$25,540 spent21% of program spendingThe foundation helps persons in need of hearing testing, and hearing aids. Low income to indigent individuals are referred to a foundation committee to determine the need and if approved payment to assist in securing hearing aids.
$5,769 spent5% of program spendingDirect assistance to lower income to indigent individuals for prescription drugs, doctor bills, help with rent, school clothing for children, help with buying groceries. Individuals are referred to the foundation by a committee that screens the needs to assure that the person to receive help is in fact needy. The foundation is the "court of last resort" for many of these individuals, where they can get direct assistance without going through a lot of "bureaucratic red tape". Also assistance to a child care center for low income families and a residential facility for troubled youth that are in need of out of home living facilties.
$90,039 spent74% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $121,348.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $1.6M to $2.9M (+83%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $6k → $8k.
2 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 LIONS 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 LIONS FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 86% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 63% · 2020 100% · 2021 64% · 2022 98% · 2023 99% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of DENVER LIONS FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $25k 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.
Organizations like DENVER LIONS 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
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
55%
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 LIONS 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 LIONS FOUNDATION?
- DENVER LIONS FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $472,776 to it, the largest being SCHLESSMAN FOUNDATION INC ($407,793). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DENVER LIONS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $472,776 in grants to DENVER LIONS FOUNDATION, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DENVER LIONS FOUNDATION?
- SCHLESSMAN FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $407,793 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DENVER LIONS 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 Lions →
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 5 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