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Colorado · Nonprofit

ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION

ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $436,535 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($214,966). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$878k
Funders on record
16
Grants received
$437k
Net assets
$726k
10/16 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 15%
01What it does

What Rocky Ridge Music Center Foundation does

Mission

Rocky ridge music exists to elevate the musician inside each of us to the highest level through a unique, holistic approach - meeting every student where they are, helping them to learn, create, enjoy, and support music - ultimately making all of us more fulfilled as humans.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Summer seminars music instructionyouth programs rocky ridge music center's youth program offers everything from half hour lessons to a month-long residential music intensive for college students at its estes park location. During the four weeks of college intensive, students between the ages 18 to 24 receive two weekly private lessons, perform six solo and chamber concerts, delve deeply into advanced chamber music and perform for their peers and the public at our historic concert hall and in the community. In addition, college students attend panel discussions about the music industry, and take part in mock auditions and receive feedback from seasoned orchestral musicians. In two weeks of junior music programs, students between the ages 10 to 17 hone their skills and develop their unique musical voices through composition, ensembles, performance, and private tutorials. Additionally, students collaborate to compose a new orchestral work for the final concert. Junior artist composers receive readings by faculty as well as premiere performance and recording of their works. They also have the option to challenge themselves further through study of advanced classical repertoire. We…

    $646,881 spentof which $86,096 as grants$467,281 earned by the program
    96% of program spending
  2. Preservation of our historic facility.preservation and modernization of our historical campus is an ongoing effort and part of our board's focus. This year we invested $30,927 in capital expenditures to upgrade facilities and conversions to other other uses. Our facility was homesteaded and constructed as an inn in the early 1900s, occupied by rocky ridge since 1951, and was declared a national historic district in the early 1990s. The rustic historic feel is integral to the intimate, personal nature of our music education experience. Nature and community are part of our mission statement and the small student body and the close communal living in rustic cabins reinforce the mutual support the students feel for each other's accomplishments. Thus, it is imperative that we preserve the historic nature of our facility while carefully modernizing it to meet current safety codes and student expectations. By modernizing our campus, our goal is to keep the accommodations comfortable for today's students' expectations - both adult and youth - so that our program and the facility continue and prosper. It has also been necessary to bring the facility up to current safety codes which we have…

    $26,120 spent
    4% of program spending
  3. Musical academies in boulderthe music academy offers outreach programs in partnership with public schools and special seminars and concerts at the year-round location in boulder downtown.

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $673,001.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.1M) Expenses 100 ($998k) Net assets 100 ($1.3M)2018 Revenue 81 ($869k) Expenses 93 ($928k) Net assets 94 ($1.2M)2019 Revenue 75 ($810k) Expenses 98 ($979k) Net assets 80 ($1.0M)2020 Revenue 39 ($418k) Expenses 65 ($645k) Net assets 62 ($779k)2021 Revenue 87 ($933k) Expenses 64 ($636k) Net assets 79 ($991k)2022 Revenue 56 ($608k) Expenses 70 ($698k) Net assets 72 ($901k)2023 Revenue 70 ($759k) Expenses 76 ($759k) Net assets 72 ($901k)2024 Revenue 61 ($663k) Expenses 88 ($880k) Net assets 55 ($684k)2025 Revenue 81 ($878k) Expenses 84 ($836k) Net assets 58 ($726k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (81)Expenses (84)Net assets (58)

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $1.1M to $847k (−21%).

$1.3M
$1.2M
$1.1M
$1.0M
$1.2M
$1.1M
$1.1M
$847k
$951k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 43%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$80k
’17
−$59k
’18
−$169k
’19
−$227k
’20
$297k
’21
−$90k
’22
$228
’23
−$217k
’24
$42k
’25
2.7
months of
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

Soyoung Lee

Exec. Director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed111212766896
Joined·+7+0+3+0+0+2+4+0
No longer listed·60810033
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 6 funders to 4 funders, grant income fell $67k → $20k.

7 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% 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 ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION’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

ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 49% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

69% 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 ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION.

49%
largest funder
65%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 50% · 2019 47% · 2020 75% · 2021 61% · 2022 56% · 2023 40% — 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

55% of ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

69% of ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION'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 $134k that is directly attributable, 80% of it comes from funders outside Colorado, across 7 states.

OH
CA
CO
VA
KS
NC
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Colorado out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $302k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.

04Its place in the field

Organizations like ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

81% of spending goes to programs.

Program 81%Management 10%Fundraising 10%

Governance

5
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

98%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CO

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION: 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.

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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 ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION?
ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION (Colorado) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $436,535 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($214,966). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $436,535 in grants to ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION?
COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $214,966 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ROCKY RIDGE MUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION 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 Rocky Ridge Music Center →

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 16 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