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Colorado · Nonprofit

DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION

DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,118,618 to it, the largest being SCHLESSMAN FOUNDATION INC ($2,500,000). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$4.7M
Funders on record
71
Grants received
$9.1M
Net assets
$14M
40/71 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 60%
01What it does

What Denver Public Library Friends Foundation does

Mission

The Denver Public Library Friends Foundation enriches our community by building support and raising money to expand the library's programs and services.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Denver Public Library Friends Foundation is enriching the community by building support and raising money to enhance denver public library's programs and services. Funds donated to the friends foundation support: renovations and improvements to library branches; the purchase of books, materials and resources for circulation; programming for all ages; the development of the western history and other special collection; services for refugees and immigrants; advocacy efforts; and more.

    $1,514,122 spentof which $1,108,403 as grants$194,812 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,514,122.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($2.0M) Expenses 100 ($2.4M) Net assets 100 ($10M)2018 Revenue 98 ($1.9M) Expenses 55 ($1.3M) Net assets 96 ($9.8M)2019 Revenue 106 ($2.1M) Expenses 124 ($3.0M) Net assets 98 ($10M)2020 Revenue 310 ($6.2M) Expenses 105 ($2.5M) Net assets 141 ($14M)2021 Revenue 315 ($6.3M) Expenses 263 ($6.3M) Net assets 129 ($13M)2022 Revenue 163 ($3.2M) Expenses 189 ($4.6M) Net assets 97 ($10.0M)2023 Revenue 85 ($1.7M) Expenses 82 ($2.0M) Net assets 105 ($11M)2024 Revenue 142 ($2.8M) Expenses 124 ($3.0M) Net assets 110 ($11M)2025 Revenue 235 ($4.7M) Expenses 99 ($2.4M) Net assets 138 ($14M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (235)Expenses (99)Net assets (138)Peer revenue range

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 $10M to $15M (+45%).

$10M
$9.8M
$10M
$15M
$14M
$11M
$11M
$11M
$14M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

75% of DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,360 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$417k
’17
$630k
’18
−$884k
’19
$3.6M
’20
−$61k
’21
−$1.3M
’22
−$291k
’23
−$174k
’24
$2.3M
’25
11
months of
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.

Board chair

Ron Tomassi

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed212322252321212123
Joined·+4+7+4+1+3+8+4+4
No longer listed·28135842
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 29 funders, grant income rose $677k → $1.0M.

18 of 71 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 71 funders by total. 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

45% 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION.

27%
largest funder
53%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 28% · 2019 21% · 2020 29% · 2021 35% · 2022 45% · 2023 50% — 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

79% of DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Colorado funders.

MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OH
NJ
CT
CO
DE
KS
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Colorado out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin49% · top quartile
Months of reserve10.8mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)11% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS 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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

64% of spending goes to programs.

Program 64%Management 14%Fundraising 23%

Governance

22
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

73%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Denver Public Library · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS 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.

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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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION?
DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,118,618 to it, the largest being SCHLESSMAN FOUNDATION INC ($2,500,000). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 71 organizations giving $9,118,618 in grants to DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION, 40 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION?
SCHLESSMAN FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS 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 71 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing