Colorado · Nonprofit
Spirit of the Sun Inc
Spirit of the Sun Inc (Colorado) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,081,940 to it, the largest being THE COLORADO HEALTH FOUNDATION ($687,600). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $2.1M
- Net assets
- $909k
What Spirit of the Sun Inc does
Mission
To work in partnership with Native American communities in urban areas and on reservations to boost the resilience of Native people especially youth and young adults.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Elders Foodshare Program: Spirit of the Suns Elders Foodshare program provided weekly food services to approximately 200 people per week. We sourced food through donations partner farms and local producers assembling culturally appropriate nutritionally complete boxes with produce grains eggs herbs teas and meat. These boxes were distributed through a combination of pickup and no-cost delivery services to ensure consistent access to healthy food.
$381,194 spentof which $131,426 as grants42% of program spendingHealing Foodbags: Spirit of the Sun reached 500 youth through our Healings Foods Bags program. We distribute bags that contain a small variety of whole fruits and vegetables along with educational materials explaining their uses and importance to various Native cultures. We reach children through distributions at various locations including housing complexes schools and events including powwows.
$304,900 spent33% of program spendingIndigenous Agriculture: Spirit of the Sun worked towards preserving the cultural practices of Indigenous foodways by growing our traditional bioregional foods and understanding our foods as our medicine through our Healing Foods Project. The Indigenous Agriculture team grows food on our partner farms to be shared with the community through our Native Elders Food Share Program. This work promotes Native and Indigenous selfdetermination and resiliency by addressing systemic environmental injustices and food apartheid through Indigenous foodsystems sovereignty traditional foodways and Indigenous climate justice. Through working with local Native and BIPOC communities we seek to strengthen economic and cultural resilience through Rematriation and ancestral ecological practices soil remediation and knowledge sharing. In 2024 Spirit of the Sun grew and distributed 1000lbs of food to our community members.
$228,698 spent25% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $914,792.
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.
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 $91k to $444k (+388%).
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 63% · 2018 67% · 2019 55% · 2020 29% · 2021 8% · 2022 6% · 2023 1% · 2024 18% · 2025 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Chief executive
Shannon Francis
Executive Director
Board chair
Richard Henson
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 14 funders, grant income rose $5k → $555k.
9 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 Spirit of the Sun Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
Spirit of the Sun Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% 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
61% 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 Spirit of the Sun Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 67% · 2020 40% · 2021 55% · 2022 39% · 2023 23% — 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
50% of Spirit of the Sun Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 33% 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
82% of Spirit of the Sun Inc's grant income comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $749k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.
Government funding Spirit of the Sun Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $387k on record.
- Corporation for National and Community Service$387k
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 Spirit of the Sun Inc
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
81% 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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Spirit of the Sun Inc: 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 Spirit of the Sun Inc?
- Spirit of the Sun Inc (Colorado) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,081,940 to it, the largest being THE COLORADO HEALTH FOUNDATION ($687,600). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Spirit of the Sun Inc have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $2,081,940 in grants to Spirit of the Sun Inc, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Spirit of the Sun Inc?
- THE COLORADO HEALTH FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $687,600 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Spirit of the Sun Inc 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 36 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