Colorado · Nonprofit
OPERA COLORADO
OPERA COLORADO (Colorado) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,567,526 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($1,618,500). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.0M
- Funders on record
- 66
- Grants received
- $7.6M
- Net assets
- $-874221
What Opera Colorado does
Mission
Opera Colorado uses the powerful art form of opera to connect our community through musical storytelling. The company actively collaborates with other non-profit institutions to amplify their missions with the arts.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Opera Colorado produces two fully staged grand operas at the ellie caulkins opera house for audiences in greater denver and the rocky mountain region at large. This program serves over 20,000 patrons per year.
$2,859,059 spent$1,463,579 earned by the program67% of program spendingOpera Colorado annually serves over 40,000 students of all ages through education and community engagement programs, bringing the arts into schools, classrooms, and community centers through greater denver and the rocky mountain region at large. Opera Colorado also makes a significant investment in supporting future opera professionals with its artist in residence program, a 9-month residency with artist training and performance opportunities in a professional opera house and in the community.
$1,439,936 spent$296,971 earned by the program33% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,298,995.
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 2020 to 2021, from $2.8M to $4.2M (+48%).
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 6% · 2018 7% · 2019 6% · 2020 12% · 2021 23% · 2022 27% · 2023 11% · 2024 8% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
64% of OPERA COLORADO’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $585k → $789k.
12 of 66 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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: $1.2M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Opera Colorado Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money OPERA COLORADO raised.
From the IRS filings of OPERA COLORADO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 66 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
OPERA COLORADO has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
57% 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 OPERA COLORADO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 45% · 2019 25% · 2020 36% · 2021 27% · 2022 21% · 2023 22% — 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
58% of OPERA COLORADO'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
55% of OPERA COLORADO'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 $3.4M that is directly attributable, 86% of it 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 7 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
OPERA COLORADO's revenue grew 30% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding OPERA COLORADO receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $95k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$95k
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 OPERA COLORADO
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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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
- Opera Colorado Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OPERA COLORADO: 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 OPERA COLORADO?
- OPERA COLORADO (Colorado) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,567,526 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($1,618,500). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does OPERA COLORADO have?
- IRS filings report 66 organizations giving $7,567,526 in grants to OPERA COLORADO, 40 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPERA COLORADO?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $1,618,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPERA COLORADO 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 Opera Colorado →
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 66 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