Colorado · Nonprofit
THE BELL POLICY CENTER
THE BELL POLICY CENTER (Colorado) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,161,724 to it, the largest being MERLE CHAMBERS FUND ($2,228,480). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.0M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $2.5M
What The Bell Policy Center does
Mission
The Bell Policy Center's mission is to ensure economic mobility for every coloradan. We work to ignite a conversation that inspires communities and their leaders to transform colorado into a state where everyone thrives.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The Bell Policy Center uses policy research and analysis, advocacy, and strategic communication to advance systems change that supports economic mobility and equity. We approach this work with a focus on four main areas: Public Funding for Economic Mobility: Legislative, ballot, legal, and long-term strategies to ensure public funding for the essential ingredients and levers of economic mobility, as well as core research and analysis on public funding and economic mobility from an equity lens.Strengthening the Caring Economy: Research, communication, and advocacy to elevate and strengthen Colorados caring workforce (early childhood educators, direct care workers supporting older adults and people with disabilities, educators and staff in the K-12 system) and the families they serve.Closing Equity Gaps: Identifying and tackling structural barriers for historically marginalized communities in key levers of economic mobility, with a strong focus on housing, financial empowerment, postsecondary education, and aging, and a specific racial and gender equity lens.Telling the Economic Story: Telling the story of our economy to policymakers, media, and activists with a focus on fairness,…
$1,144,049 spent$11,827 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,144,049.
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 $2.4M to $3.7M (+54%).
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 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of THE BELL POLICY CENTER’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Angela Cobian
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $618k → $1.8M.
13 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 BELL POLICY CENTER’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
THE BELL POLICY CENTER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
30% 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 BELL POLICY CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 21% · 2019 20% · 2020 19% · 2021 22% · 2022 29% · 2023 35% — growing more concentrated.
“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
67% of THE BELL POLICY CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
86% of THE BELL POLICY CENTER's grant income comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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 BELL POLICY CENTER holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 978 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 978 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like THE BELL POLICY CENTER
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
58%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- The Bell Action Network · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE BELL POLICY CENTER: 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 BELL POLICY CENTER?
- THE BELL POLICY CENTER (Colorado) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,161,724 to it, the largest being MERLE CHAMBERS FUND ($2,228,480). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE BELL POLICY CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $10,161,724 in grants to THE BELL POLICY CENTER, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE BELL POLICY CENTER?
- MERLE CHAMBERS FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,228,480 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE BELL POLICY CENTER 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 Bell Policy Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), 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