Colorado · Nonprofit
THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC
THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC (Colorado) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,580,849 to it, the largest being Kenny Foundation Inc ($1,115,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $6.6M
- Net assets
- $5.4M
What The Challenge Foundation Inc does
Mission
The challenge foundation empowers students to reach their full potential through academic scholarships and comprehensive support, bridging the gap to an extraordinary education and lifelong success.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Challenge summer program:the challenge summer program is held at st mary's academy for approximately six weeks. Students are rising 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th graders. The students must have financial need and have demonstrated academic success. The summer staff consists of teachers, co-teachers and year round challenge foundation staff members. Summer program classes are language arts, math and science. Enrichment activities include public speaking, swimming lessons, high ropes course, dance, sports, college visits, career day, financial literacy and music. Breakfast, lunch and snacks are served. Transportation is provided.
$285,288 spent15% of program spendingTutoring, mentoring and advising:the challenge foundation matches students with a volunteer mentor who partners with the family and the staff to provide on-going support, encouragement and meaningful educational experiences. The mentor is a professional in our community who is trained to serve as a role model and team member in the scholars' educational journey. Tutoring is offered and accessed as needed at every level of the scholars' experience, from 6th grade through college, including act/sat prep. All of these supports are managed by a challenge advisor on staff who helps students overcome obstacles in their personal and academic lives. Advisors attend teacher conferences, obtain computers, school supplies, athletic equipment, musical instruments and counsel them throughout the college and financial aid application process.
$993,912 spent53% of program spendingScholarships:the challenge foundation partners with college preparatory schools to award scholarships to qualified students from sixth through twelfth grades. To be eligible, families demonstrate financial need and students demonstrate year-round academic success and commitment. The program will impact approximately 160 students.
$604,255 spentof which $604,255 as grants32% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,883,455.
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 2019 to 2020, from $20M to $1.7M (−92%).
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.
120% of THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 27 funders, grant income rose $650k → $940k.
11 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $3.5M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Charlou Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC raised.
From the IRS filings of THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 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 CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
40% 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 CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 29% · 2019 19% · 2020 15% · 2021 18% · 2022 22% · 2023 32% — 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
73% of THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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
THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC draws 58% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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 CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION 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
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
33%
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 THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION 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 THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC?
- THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC (Colorado) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,580,849 to it, the largest being Kenny Foundation Inc ($1,115,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $6,580,849 in grants to THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION INC?
- Kenny Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,115,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CHALLENGE FOUNDATION 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.
Play a game about who funds Challenge →
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 46 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