Colorado · Nonprofit
RAISE THE FUTURE
RAISE THE FUTURE (Colorado) receives grants from 93 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,839,660 to it, the largest being DAVE THOMAS FOUNDATION FOR ADOPTION ($15,655,405). 54 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $12M
- Funders on record
- 93
- Grants received
- $22M
- Net assets
- $3.7M
What Raise the Future does
Mission
Every young person is connected to at least one strong, stable, and caring adult who meets their unique needs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Family preparation and support:Raise the Future provides ongoing, hands-on support to families throughout their adoption journey, starting before the adoption process begins. The family support program offers education, coaching, and tailored services to help families navigate the unique challenges of adoption. By fostering strong relationships early on, Raise the Future promotes family commitment and minimizes the risk of adoption disruptions.classes and training opportunities focus on equipping parents with the tools and knowledge to address the impacts of trauma, abuse, and neglect, helping children develop secure attachments and thrive as healthy, successful adults. In the fiscal year ending june 30, 2025, raise served over 1,900 caregivers and professionals involved with the child welfare system through delivery of more than 1340 hours of trauma-informed training and over 4,500 hours of personalized coaching and one-on-one support. Additional resources, including articles and videos, are regularly shared with adoptive families via bi-monthly e-newsletters to provide ongoing guidance and encouragement.
$4,272,758 spent$29,210 earned by the program46% of program spendingIntensive recruitment services:Raise the Future's intensive recruitment program builds positive, healthy relationships with youth, empowering them and enhancing their ability to connect with potential families. Using an evidence-based model proven to increase the likelihood of finding permanent families by up to three times, the program also generates significant cost savings by reducing reliance on congregate and foster care.recruiters maintain caseloads of 12 to 15 youth, focusing on the oldest, longest-waiting, hardest-to-place, and most vulnerable individuals at risk of aging out of the foster care system. This personalized, strengths-based approach served 610 youth in three states, and contributed to 131 youth being matched with permanent families during the year.
$3,648,527 spent39% of program spendingNational partnerships and technical assistanceRaise the Future partners with the national center for diligent recruitment and the national center for enhanced post adoption to strengthen adoption systems nationwide. By providing free, customized technical assistance, webinars, resources, and opportunities for peer connections, the organization supports states, tribes, and territories in building their capacity to recruit adoptive families and enhance post-adoption services. Through these partnerships, Raise the Future contributes to systemic improvements that benefit children and families across the country.
$814,299 spent9% of program spendingMedia-based recruitment services:Raise the Future employs child-centric recruitment methods to identify and connect potential adoptive families with waiting children. Key activities include hosting adoption networking events, partnering with local news stations to broadcast wednesday's child profiles, and featuring children in the children's gallery on the organization's website. Monthly adoption orientation and information classes, as well as print and electronic media campaigns, help raise awareness and support for the adoption of waiting children. The organization also assists prospective adoptive families nationwide by providing guidance on the adoption process, connecting them with local human services and child placement agencies, and responding to inquiries about specific children.a standout feature of Raise the Future's recruitment efforts is the heart gallery, a photographic exhibit that showcases the personalities and stories of waiting children in colorado, missouri, nevada, and utah. By bringing these children's images to life, the heart gallery helps them find loving, permanent families. Additionally, small matching events provide opportunities for prospective…
$552,252 spent$30,385 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $9,287,836.
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 2017 to 2018, from $2.1M to $3.4M (+58%).
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 45% · 2018 31% · 2019 30% · 2021 45% · 2022 48% · 2023 46% · 2024 54% · 2025 64%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of RAISE THE FUTURE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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
Ann Ayers
CEO (end 3/2026)
Board chair
Jay Sudowski
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $870k → $2.2M.
14 of 93 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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: $65k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Wednesdays Child Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money RAISE THE FUTURE raised.
From the IRS filings of RAISE THE FUTURE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 93 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
RAISE THE FUTURE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 72% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
91% 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 RAISE THE FUTURE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 36% · 2019 72% · 2020 77% · 2021 79% · 2022 83% · 2023 69% — broadly stable.
“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
37% of RAISE THE FUTURE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
RAISE THE FUTURE draws 88% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 17 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M 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
RAISE THE FUTURE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,396 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,396 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like RAISE THE FUTURE
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 7 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for RAISE THE FUTURE: 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 RAISE THE FUTURE?
- RAISE THE FUTURE (Colorado) receives grants from 93 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,839,660 to it, the largest being DAVE THOMAS FOUNDATION FOR ADOPTION ($15,655,405). 54 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does RAISE THE FUTURE have?
- IRS filings report 93 organizations giving $21,839,660 in grants to RAISE THE FUTURE, 54 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RAISE THE FUTURE?
- DAVE THOMAS FOUNDATION FOR ADOPTION is the largest funder on record, with $15,655,405 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RAISE THE FUTURE 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 Raise the Future →
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 93 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