Colorado · Nonprofit
The Colorado Trail Foundation
The Colorado Trail Foundation (Colorado) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,270,492 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($408,757). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $982k
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What The Colorado Trail Foundation does
Mission
To provide, improve, and maintain, through voluntary public involvement and in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, a linear, non-motorized, sustainable, scenic, recreation trail corridor for hikers, mountain bikers, and horse riders between Denver and Durango, Colorado: The Colorado Trail.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Trail operations: Improve and maintain the Colorado Trail. The Colorado Trail Foundation sponsored 21 trail crews with a total of 651 volunteers. These trail crews built and refurbished hundreds of water diversions, removed trees and undergrowth, and eliminated rocks impeding the trail. Adopter volunteers cleared the trail, sawed and removed hundreds of fallen trees, cleaned water diversions, repaired rockslides,and repaired, replaced, and installed signs enabling hikers and horses to stay on the trail. Averaged out over the length of the Colorado Trail, this is roughly 20 hours of volunteer work per mile of trail. In all, 651 volunteers worked a total of 11,805 hours with 11 USFS Ranger Districts, 6 national forests, 2 ski resorts and other partner organizations to protect the trail for Colorado Trail users.All of this effort made 2024 one of our busiest years on record!
$335,026 spent$72,910 earned by the program46% of program spendingGuided treks: Trekkers participated in seven week-long supported treks along the Colorado Trail for recreational and educational activity keyed to the diverse, high mountain environment.
$158,053 spent$143,060 earned by the program22% of program spendingOutreach and trail user education and assistance: Educated and aided hundreds of Colorado Trail users by responding to telephone and email requests for information. Distributed Treadlines newsletters to over 17,000 households. Maintained and improved the CTF website, social media, and database to support trail crew and adopter activities, and educate trail users about the trail and Leave No Trace ethics. Provided speakers and video information on the subject of the Colorado Trail, the Colorado Trail Foundation, trail crew and educational opportunities.
$144,531 spent20% of program spendingOther program services: Maps and guidebooks: developed and updated materials to inform trail users and the general public about the Colorado Trail, and provided support information to the trail users in 2024. Events: The Foundation sponsored several events to celebrate new trail openings and connect with, educate, and thank its 700 volunteers who contributed over 12,000 hours to the protection and preservation of the Colorado Trail.
$97,117 spent$58,848 earned by the program13% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $734,727.
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 $2.2M to $2.5M (+15%).
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 6% · 2018 7% · 2019 7% · 2020 14% · 2021 5% · 2022 5% · 2023 5% · 2024 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of The Colorado Trail Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (18% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Steve Staley
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $134k → $208k.
12 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 73% 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 Colorado Trail Foundation’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 Colorado Trail Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% 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
86% 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 Colorado Trail Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 56% · 2019 49% · 2020 54% · 2021 40% · 2022 27% · 2023 28% — 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
63% of The Colorado Trail Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
73% of The Colorado Trail Foundation'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 $347k that is directly attributable, 71% of it comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $923k 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 Colorado Trail Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 15,520 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 15,520 recreation & sports nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding The Colorado Trail Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $670k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$670k
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 Colorado Trail Foundation
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 The Colorado Trail Foundation: 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 Colorado Trail Foundation?
- The Colorado Trail Foundation (Colorado) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,270,492 to it, the largest being COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION ($408,757). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does The Colorado Trail Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $1,270,492 in grants to The Colorado Trail Foundation, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Colorado Trail Foundation?
- COLORADO GIVES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $408,757 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Colorado Trail Foundation 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 Colorado Trail →
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 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