Colorado · Nonprofit
THE ACCESS FUND
THE ACCESS FUND (Colorado) receives grants from 135 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,991,237 to it, the largest being CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ($2,406,724). 87 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 135
- Grants received
- $7.0M
- Net assets
- $4.5M
What The Access Fund does
Mission
The mission of The Access Fund is to lead and inspire the climbing community toward sustainable access and conservation of the climbing environment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Stewardship and conservation: access fund partners with land managers and local climbing organizations across the country to improve sustainability and address environmental impacts at climbing areas. Our access fund conservation teams travel the country assessing climbing area conservation needs, working with locals to address those needs, and providing stewardship best practices. Additionally, The Access Fund helps organize volunteer events across the country. Our stewardship volunteer program, adopt a crag, unites local climbing communities in partnerships with land managers to conserve their local climbing areas.
$897,736 spent$240,496 earned by the program40% of program spendingClimbing management policy - access fund works with legislators, members of the administration, state agencies, tribal governments, and officials from the us forest service, national park service, and bureau of land management to make sure that climbers' interests are represented in public land planning. We work directly with these officials to educate and advocate for management strategies that balance climbing access with resource conservation, responsible placement and replacement of fixed anchors, sustainable care and management of climbing areas, and recognition of the social and economic benefits of climbing. Access fund also works with local and regional land managers on climbing management planning and stewardship of climbing areas.
$681,564 spent30% of program spendingLocal support and mobilization - access fund works to empower local advocates to join together and form local climbing organizations. Access fund supports these local groups with grants, one-on-one guidance when an access issue occurs, educational resources, stewardship programs, and consulting on political, legal, and regulatory issues. The Access Fund regularly hosts conferences and summits, which bring together land managers and climbers from across the country to share best practices in climbing stewardship, land conservation, policy, local support and mobilization, and volunteer management.
$499,486 spentof which $76,882 as grants22% of program spendingLand acquisition and protection - The Access Fund climbing conservation loan program is the first-ever revolving loan program that provides local climbing organizations and other agencies with the funds and expertise to act quickly to save threatened climbing areas. In special circumstances, access fund will hold endangered property on behalf of the climbing community. As of 06/30/25, access fund owned one property in fee; leased two properties; held conservation easements on ten properties; and managed three properties under contract. Education The Access Fund advances climber education through the lens of minimum impact behaviors so that climbers become better stewards of the nations climbing resources. Through the climber steward program, social media outreach, print publications, and the vertical times newsletter, the organization provides up-to-date news on policy, area reports, events, action alerts, grants, and more. Risk management and landowner support The Access Fund works with private and public landowners on tools and strategies to mitigate both real and perceived risks of climbinggiving them the confidence and protections they need to open their land to public access.…
$179,426 spent8% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,258,212.
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 2020 to 2021, from $4.3M to $5.2M (+21%).
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: 2021 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of THE ACCESS FUND’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (71% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 30 funders to 52 funders, grant income rose $238k → $648k.
24 of 135 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 71% 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 THE ACCESS FUND’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 135 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
THE ACCESS FUND has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% 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
74% 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 THE ACCESS FUND.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 26% · 2019 48% · 2020 55% · 2021 70% · 2022 20% · 2023 22% — 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
46% of THE ACCESS FUND's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
71% of THE ACCESS FUND'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 $2.0M that is directly attributable, 81% of it comes from funders outside Colorado, across 31 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
THE ACCESS FUND holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 390 unclassified nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 390 unclassified nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE ACCESS FUND receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $283k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$185k
- Department of the Interior$98k
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 THE ACCESS FUND
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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 41 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE ACCESS FUND: 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 THE ACCESS FUND?
- THE ACCESS FUND (Colorado) receives grants from 135 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,991,237 to it, the largest being CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ($2,406,724). 87 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE ACCESS FUND have?
- IRS filings report 135 organizations giving $6,991,237 in grants to THE ACCESS FUND, 87 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE ACCESS FUND?
- CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA is the largest funder on record, with $2,406,724 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE ACCESS FUND 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 135 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