Colorado · Nonprofit
LAST PRISONER PROJECT
LAST PRISONER PROJECT (Colorado) receives grants from 63 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,156,074 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($117,040). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 63
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What Last Prisoner Project does
Mission
The Last Prisoner Project (lpp) is a national, nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform. We aim to end america's policy of cannabis criminalization, as well as to repair the harms of this discriminatory and counterproductive crusade. We accomplish this by focusing on three critical criminal justice reform initiatives: release, record clearance, and reentry support. Beyond release, record clearance, and reentry, we also work to get our incarcerated constituents access to resources like food, healthcare, and phone calls by helping to fund their commissary accounts.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Policy and advocacy:our policy team works with local, state, tribal, and federal policymakers, public officials, and community-based organizations to develop, advance, and implement just, equitable, and effective cannabis-related policies, practices, and programs. We do this by providing nonpartisan, evidence-based technical assistance to jurisdictions working to advance cannabis laws that provide retroactive relief.
$992,589 spent$195 earned by the program40% of program spendingReentry and support:our reentry resources focus on ensuring that our constituents have the tools and support they need when coming home from incarceration. This includes financial support for housing, transportation, medical needs, employability skills and training, and financial wellness counseling. To that end, every year, lpp disperses direct microgrants to system-impacted constituents. Furthermore, our family support fund allocates a portion of lpp's funding directly to the children of our constituents to help them access educational resources while their parent is incarcerated.our advocacy campaigns use the faces and stories of individuals negatively impacted by cannabis prohibition and other misguided drug policies to help to change the narrative about these issues. We also produce reports, commentary, and shareable content that explore the sordid history behind-and devastating impact of-our drug nation's "war on drugs." this research is often leveraged to assist advocates, academics, and policymakers as they work to end the criminalization of cannabis and effectuate other drug policy reforms.
$869,103 spentof which $517,251 as grants35% of program spendingLegal:the lpp team fights to secure the "full freedom" of every last person in prison for unjust cannabis laws. The first step is ensuring the release of those still incarcerated for nonviolent, cannabis-related offenses. We accomplish this through our pro bono legal services, where we work to secure freedom for our constituents through executive clemency petitions, compassionate release motions, and other relevant legal mechanisms. Our legal arm also identifies and pursues strategic legal actions (amicus briefs, class action suits, individual claims, etc.) that support our efforts to effectuate drug policy and criminal justice-related reforms.
$649,846 spent26% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,511,538.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2019 to 2020, from $33k to $1.7M (+5003%).
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: 2020 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of LAST PRISONER PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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
Stephanie Shepard
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 19 funders, grant income rose $3k → $185k.
13 of 63 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 LAST PRISONER PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 63 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
LAST PRISONER PROJECT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
54% 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 LAST PRISONER PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 20% · 2021 27% · 2022 14% · 2023 27% — 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
18% of LAST PRISONER PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 35% 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
LAST PRISONER PROJECT draws 83% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 23 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $505k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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.
Against its field
LAST PRISONER PROJECT has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like LAST PRISONER PROJECT
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LAST PRISONER PROJECT: 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 LAST PRISONER PROJECT?
- LAST PRISONER PROJECT (Colorado) receives grants from 63 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,156,074 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($117,040). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LAST PRISONER PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 63 organizations giving $1,156,074 in grants to LAST PRISONER PROJECT, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LAST PRISONER PROJECT?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $117,040 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LAST PRISONER PROJECT 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 2019–2024), and the filings of 63 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