Colorado · Nonprofit
GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND
GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND (Colorado) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $66,500 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($42,500). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $29k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $67k
- Net assets
- $54k
What George & Michael Gardner Fund does
Mission
The george gardner scholarship fund (ggsf) provides financial assistance to ouray county, colorado youth who wish to pursue outdoor or experiential educational opportunities for personal and interpresonal growth.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
GGSF emphasizes and supports experiential learning opportunities outside of traditional educational settings for teens motivated to explore outdoor educational programs. We believe that profound learning is often facilitated by time spent in the mountains, deserts, rivers and oceans of the world. These experiences provide an arena for leadership development and other lifelong skills.
$21,580 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $21,580.
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 $38k to $60k (+59%).
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.
81% of GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (65% for the typical peer).
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.
Board chair
Deb Willits
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $11k → $14k.
1 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 64% 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 GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND’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
GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
64% 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 GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 95% · 2022 80% · 2023 75% — 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.
Where its funders are
64% of GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND'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 $24k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Colorado, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $43k 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
GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND has grown faster than three-quarters of the 21,892 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,892 education nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Organizations like GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND
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
0% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
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 GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND: 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 GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND?
- GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND (Colorado) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $66,500 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($42,500). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $66,500 in grants to GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $42,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GEORGE & MICHAEL GARDNER FUND 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 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing