Colorado · Nonprofit
Silverton Avalanche School
Silverton Avalanche School (Colorado) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $61 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($61). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $507k
- Funders on record
- 1
- Grants received
- $61
- Net assets
- $132k
What Silverton Avalanche School does
Mission
Since 1962, the Silverton Avalanche School has educated backcountry travelers about the hazards of the mountains. As the oldest, continuosly operating snow safety and avalanche education program in the United States, Silverton Avalanche School is dedicated to empower our students with the tools, technologies, tactics and techniques to make competent decisions in cosequential mountain terrain.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Silverton Avalanche School aspires to equip recreational and professional students with the knowledge, skills, and strategies necessary to make informed decisions in hazardous mountain terrain, thereby aiming to prevent accidents and fatalities. For over six decades, Silverton Avalanche School has provided avalanche and snow science education and safety training. The school also provides Search and rescue training and support services based in the rugged alpine environment of San Juan County Colorado. 2024-2025 School year- Celebrated the organizations 62nd season of continuous operationFacilitated over 60 public trainings and custom courses educating over 7000 studentsProvided curriculum to hundreds more student through the SAS Provider Network22 Professional level certification courses Published our second professional field book18 Recreational level courses 16 Rescue courses- 13 were recreational level and 3 were professional level Leading provider of professional avalanche search and rescue training to ski patrol,backcountry rescue teams and mechanized rescuers. Helicopter training collaborationwith Flight for Life Colorado.2024-2025 School year- Celebrated the organizations…
$420,837 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $420,837.
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 2022 to 2023, from $196k to $60k (−70%).
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 5% · 2018 7% · 2019 6% · 2020 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
2% of Silverton Avalanche School’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (75% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $5 → $27.
1 of 1 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 Silverton Avalanche School’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.
Where its funders are
100% of Silverton Avalanche School'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. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $61 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Silverton Avalanche School runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,014 public safety & disaster nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,014 public safety & disaster nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Silverton Avalanche School receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $879k on record.
- Department of Defense$879k
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 Silverton Avalanche School
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
97% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Silverton Avalanche School: 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 Silverton Avalanche School?
- Silverton Avalanche School (Colorado) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $61 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($61). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Silverton Avalanche School have?
- IRS filings report 1 organization giving $61 in grants to Silverton Avalanche School, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Silverton Avalanche School?
- AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $61 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Silverton Avalanche School 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 Silverton Avalanche School →
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 1 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