Colorado · Nonprofit
OUR OWN LIVES
OUR OWN LIVES (Colorado) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,572,369 to it, the largest being Community Connections Inc ($1,562,869). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.2M
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $3.0M
What Our Own Lives does
Mission
The mission of Our Own Lives is to provide quality support on our terms, for us to be free to be ourselves. We center the disabled community to be heard, and we buildeach other up to change our world. We are all experts in Our Own Lives.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Supportive living services:host home: we collaborate with people in services to find a person or a family tolive with that will provide support up to 24 hours a day. The host home can providemeals, can help clean, can help with showering/bathing, getting dressed, managemoney, medication administration, transportation to medical appointments, and provideaccess to community events and running errands.transition services:we collaborate with people in services to find a person or a family to live with thatwill provide support up to 24 hours a day. The host home can provide meals, can helpclean, can help with showering/bathing, getting dressed, manage money, medicationadministration, transportation to medical appointments, and provide access tocommunity events and running errands.in home support services:for clients who own or rent their own home, our staff stop by as needed to help withhome upkeep and life. We support clients with the same types of things as a hosthome, but usually not all day every day. These supports assist clients with the sameservices as the above home support services, but in the sls program they are splitinto different categories:personal care: help bathing,…
$2,866,503 spent80% of program spendingDay services:supported community connectionwe provide support for community access and help clients go anywhere in thecommunity that they choose to build skills to be more confident and independent inaccessing community services, events, and activities. People in services use oursupported community connection to volunteer, attend community events, visit shops,restaurants, libraries, rec centers, and wherever they wish within southwestcolorado.specialized habilitationthis program provides support to assist clients to build skills in various areas oftheir life that ultimately help them achieve their goals. Some people use thisservice to learn sign language, to cook meals as a group, to get better at using acomputer, or managing social media or dating profiles.mentorshipwe provide mentorship to help clients understand issues and make complicated andcomplex decisions in their life. We believe in informed decision making and provideclients with potential outcomes of different decisions so that they can make thebest decisions for their own lives. Mentorship supports people in services withself-advocacy, interview different service providers, manage benefits, completecomplex paperwork,…
$605,504 spent17% of program spendingVocational support:job developmentthis services helps clients locate, interview, and get a perfect job. We assistpeople in services with putting together a resume, finding employers, navigating jobinterviews and meeting the employer, requesting accommodations, and how working mayaffect thier benefits. This can happen both individually or as a job club groupwhere people can build each other up. We focus on customized employment, where weassist clients and an employer build a job that is tailored to a persons specificstrengths and needs.job coachingwe provide 1 on 1 support and help (as needed) on the job. This support can helppeople learn job tasks, tips and tricks to stay focused, help resolving conflicts orperformance concerns, suggest accommodations, and provide other help people need tobe successful at their job.
$123,266 spent3% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,595,273.
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
Scott Smith
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
From the IRS filings of OUR OWN LIVES’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
OUR OWN LIVES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 99% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 OUR OWN LIVES.
“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
100% of OUR OWN LIVES's grant income comes from Colorado funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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
OUR OWN LIVES runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like OUR OWN LIVES
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
88% 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 OUR OWN LIVES: 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 OUR OWN LIVES?
- OUR OWN LIVES (Colorado) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,572,369 to it, the largest being Community Connections Inc ($1,562,869). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OUR OWN LIVES have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $1,572,369 in grants to OUR OWN LIVES.
- Who is the largest funder of OUR OWN LIVES?
- Community Connections Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,562,869 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OUR OWN LIVES 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 FY2025 (financials across 2025–2025), and the filings of 3 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