Colorado · Nonprofit
DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION
DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 186 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,212,543 to it, the largest being SCHLESSMAN FOUNDATION INC ($2,050,500). 113 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION is better cushioned than half of the 235 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 235 animals nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
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.
- Denver Post Community Foundationshared funderslocal
- Nyholm Family Foundation Incportfolio match
- Carole Shapiro Memorial 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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 25% · 2018 31% · 2019 38% · 2020 45% · 2021 43% · 2022 32% · 2023 30% · 2024 27%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
53% of DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 49 funders to 72 funders, grant income rose $680k → $1.7M.
27 of 186 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.
Left out of every figure on this page: $10M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Colorado Zoological Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 186 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 ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
48% 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 ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 29% · 2019 14% · 2020 17% · 2021 18% · 2022 33% · 2023 24% — 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
39% of DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
75% of DENVER ZOOLOGICAL 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. $4.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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 186 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Denver Post Community Foundationshared funderslocalCO · backs 49 organizations that share your funders · funds 65 organizations near you
- Nyholm Family Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Carole Shapiro Memorial Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Philip Lee & Elizabeth B Ellis Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Atlanta Fulton County Zoo Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Commonwealth Zoological Corporation D/B/A Zoo New Englandportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Kurz Charitable Trust & Foundation 10018300portfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Frances B & William S Todman Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Brunckhorst Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Wildlife Protection Solutionsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Brodsky Charitable Foundation Trustportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Sunkara Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
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.
Government funding DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $778k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$778k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like DENVER ZOOLOGICAL 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
84% 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
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Colorado Zoological Trust · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DENVER ZOOLOGICAL 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 ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION?
- DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 186 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,212,543 to it, the largest being SCHLESSMAN FOUNDATION INC ($2,050,500). 113 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 186 organizations giving $11,212,543 in grants to DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION, 113 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION?
- SCHLESSMAN FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,050,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DENVER ZOOLOGICAL 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 186funders 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