Colorado · Nonprofit
The Farm Collaborative
The Farm Collaborative (Colorado) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,492,071 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,019,360). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 82% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.7M
- Funders on record
- 41
- Grants received
- $3.5M
- Net assets
- $6.9M
What The Farm Collaborative does
Mission
Growing a local food system where the health of people and planet come first
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Farm Park - an educational facility, operated as a public space open to all, demonstrating neighborhood and community scale sustainable food, garden and livestock systems managed in an integrated way. More than 55,000 pounds of produce were produced this year.
$294,085 spent$220,815 earned by the program29% of program spendingVisiting groups join us year round, with 1,075 participants total. We welcomed 934 participants from 22 classes, two homeschool groups, 2 Sister Cities groups (from Argentina and France), and groups from Aspen Camp for the Deaf, Solstice Wellness Retreat, and New Mexico School for the Deaf at the FarmPark. Due to the construction of our Farm Center, we were able to accommodate fewer groups onsite this spring. Instead, our Education Director visited 141 students in their classrooms to complete a natural art project and discuss the importance of worms and composting with a worm bin.
Summer Camp Programs. Research demonstrates that growing food is one of the most powerful ways to reconnect children to nature and to get people outside. The flagship summer program, Earth Keepers, saw capacity attendance in the reporting year with 330 participants for six hours/day, five days per week for 10 weeks. Programs were sold out 10 out of 10 weeks. We reached over 2,000 student days this summer.Farmer In Training: After piloting new tween/teen programs in 2023, we launched our new Farmer In Training (FIT) program (for ages 13-17) summer of 2024 to provide agricultural education and training. Through this program the participants learned to plant and harvest, learned to properly wash and pack the produce for the farmer's market, and learned how to set up and maintain an irrigation system. In addition to these skills, they have learned how to work on a team. The success of this program is evident in the skills and confidence gained by participants, setting them on a path towards success in agriculture and skills that will serve them in their future careers. Four participants were accepted as paid participants and two accepted on a volunteer exchange agreement.
$160,295 spent$141,204 earned by the program16% of program spendingAll Others
$557,650 spent$133,732 earned by the program55% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,012,030.
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 2023 to 2024, from $5.6M to $7.1M (+27%).
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 2% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2021 2% · 2022 7% · 2023 6% · 2024 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
81% of The Farm Collaborative’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% 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.
Chief executive
Eden Vardy
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $40k → $273k.
12 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 82% 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 Farm Collaborative’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 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 Farm Collaborative has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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
87% 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 Farm Collaborative.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 69% · 2018 45% · 2019 48% · 2020 39% · 2021 76% · 2022 28% · 2023 41% — 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
35% of The Farm Collaborative's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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 The Farm Collaborative'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 $644k that is directly attributable, 67% of it comes from funders outside Colorado, across 11 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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 Farm Collaborative runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,752 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,752 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding The Farm Collaborative receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.8M on record.
- Small Business Administration$966k
- Department of Agriculture$836k
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 Farm Collaborative
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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
69%
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 Farm Collaborative: 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 Farm Collaborative?
- The Farm Collaborative (Colorado) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,492,071 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,019,360). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 82% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does The Farm Collaborative have?
- IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $3,492,071 in grants to The Farm Collaborative, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Farm Collaborative?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,019,360 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Farm Collaborative 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 Farm Collaborative →
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 41 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