Colorado · Nonprofit
Meridian Institute
Meridian Institute (Colorado) receives grants from 102 organizations whose IRS filings report $72,695,140 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($13,070,662). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $0
- Funders on record
- 102
- Grants received
- $73M
- Net assets
- $0
What Meridian Institute does
Mission
The purpose of Meridian Institute is to provide neutral, meeting facilitation and education service of helping people to solve complex and controversial environmental, economic, and social equity issues inherent in achieving the societal goal of sustainable development.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The purpose of Meridian Institute is help our partners and clients develop and implement actionable solutions to complicated, often controversial problems-big and small, global and local. Our approach brings together three elements: a deep understanding of the issues at hand; a dedicated team of experts in collaborative problem solving; and our ability to support constructive dialogues, decisions, and actions that shape the world for the better. Together, with our partners and clients, we navigate the questions, context, and implications surrounding many of the societal challenges that lie ahead.
$31,065,047 spentof which $50,000 as grants$472,971 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $31,065,047.
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 2024 to 2025, from $21M to $0 (−100%).
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: 2021 3% · 2024 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
0% of Meridian Institute’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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.
Chief executive
Todd Barker
CEO
Board chair
Kevin Cavanaugh
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 37 funders, grant income rose $1.8M → $17M.
27 of 102 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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: $150k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Meridian Implementation Fund). These are real filings, and they are not money Meridian Institute raised.
From the IRS filings of Meridian Institute’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 102 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
Meridian Institute 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
31% 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 Meridian Institute.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 23% · 2019 22% · 2020 28% · 2021 24% · 2022 23% · 2023 21% — 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
41% of Meridian Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
Meridian Institute draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 18 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $17M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
Meridian Institute has grown faster than three-quarters of the 4,748 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,748 philanthropy nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Government funding Meridian Institute receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $20.1M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$20.0M
- National Science Foundation$82k
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 Meridian Institute
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
83%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Meridian Implementation Fund · exempt
- Meridian Prime Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Meridian Institute: 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 Meridian Institute?
- Meridian Institute (Colorado) receives grants from 102 organizations whose IRS filings report $72,695,140 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($13,070,662). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Meridian Institute have?
- IRS filings report 102 organizations giving $72,695,140 in grants to Meridian Institute, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Meridian Institute?
- Walton Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $13,070,662 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Meridian Institute 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 Meridian Institute →
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 102 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