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Colorado · Nonprofit

La Plata Open Space Conservancy

La Plata Open Space Conservancy (Colorado) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $400,252 to it, the largest being COLORADO COALITION OF LAND TRUSTS ($152,800). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$444k
Funders on record
15
Grants received
$400k
Net assets
$1.8M
9/15 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 28%
01What it does

What La Plata Open Space Conservancy does

Mission

The organizations primary exempt purpose is to permanently protect, for the benefit of the community and the general public, lands in southwest Colorado that have significant agricultural, wildlife, open space, recreational, and/or historical/archeological resources.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Land protection and stewardship: Since incorporating in 1992, LPOSC has accepted donations of conservation easements permanently protecting in excess of 20,709 acres of land with superior conservation values across six counties in southwestern Colorado. In October 2024, LPOSC implemented LANDSCAPE, a secure, cloud-based land conservation software platform designed by former land trust professionals. The system centralizes project management, annual monitoring, exercised rights, issue tracking, funding management, and accreditation reporting thereby enhancing organizational efficiency, long-term accountability, and transparency. This platform strengthens LPOSCs ability to maintain compliance with accrediation requirements and land trust best practice standards. As a certified conservation easement holder, LPOSC is legally obligated to monitor land use and ecological conditions on each property on which it holds a conservation easement to ensure that the conserved land and natural resources are being used in compliance with the terms of the conservation easement. Monitoring helps LPOSC to establish and/or maintain valuable relationships with owners of conserved land, and further…

    $254,530 spent$123,169 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $254,530.

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 ($241k) Expenses 100 ($212k) Net assets 100 ($1.4M)2018 Revenue 73 ($176k) Expenses 103 ($218k) Net assets 96 ($1.3M)2019 Revenue 93 ($224k) Expenses 111 ($236k) Net assets 95 ($1.3M)2020 Revenue 59 ($142k) Expenses 95 ($201k) Net assets 90 ($1.2M)2021 Revenue 119 ($287k) Expenses 82 ($173k) Net assets 114 ($1.5M)2022 Revenue 152 ($366k) Expenses 139 ($293k) Net assets 99 ($1.3M)2023 Revenue 190 ($458k) Expenses 143 ($302k) Net assets 119 ($1.6M)2024 Revenue 184 ($444k) Expenses 155 ($329k) Net assets 131 ($1.8M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (184)Expenses (155)Net assets (131)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 2020 to 2021, from $1.2M to $1.6M (+26%).

$1.4M
$1.3M
$1.3M
$1.2M
$1.6M
$1.3M
$1.6M
$1.8M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
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
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 18% · 2021 9% · 2023 9% · 2024 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

46% of La Plata Open Space Conservancy’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,629 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$30k
’17
−$42k
’18
−$12k
’19
−$60k
’20
$114k
’21
$73k
’22
$156k
’23
$115k
’24
14
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.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed877813131311
Joined·+0+0+1+5+2+1+3
No longer listed·1000215
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $16k → $67k.

6 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 La Plata Open Space Conservancy’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

La Plata Open Space Conservancy leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

95% 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 La Plata Open Space Conservancy.

38%
largest funder
75%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 68% · 2018 58% · 2019 62% · 2020 63% · 2021 50% · 2022 48% · 2023 48% — 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

75% of La Plata Open Space Conservancy's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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 La Plata Open Space Conservancy's grant income comes from Colorado funders.

WI
MA
CO
DC

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

’19
’21
’22
’23
Colorado out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $180k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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

La Plata Open Space Conservancy runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin26% · above the median
Months of reserve14.1mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)9% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like La Plata Open Space Conservancy

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

77% of spending goes to programs.

Program 77%Management 8%Fundraising 15%

Governance

10
board members
40%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention–Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

60%

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 La Plata Open Space Conservancy: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 La Plata Open Space Conservancy?
La Plata Open Space Conservancy (Colorado) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $400,252 to it, the largest being COLORADO COALITION OF LAND TRUSTS ($152,800). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does La Plata Open Space Conservancy have?
IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $400,252 in grants to La Plata Open Space Conservancy, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of La Plata Open Space Conservancy?
COLORADO COALITION OF LAND TRUSTS is the largest funder on record, with $152,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like La Plata Open Space Conservancy 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 La Plata Open Space Conservancy →

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 15 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