Colorado · Nonprofit
VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO
VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO (Colorado) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,671,371 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION ($465,760). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.8M
- Funders on record
- 79
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $4.7M
What Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado does
Mission
Motivate and enable people to be active stewards of colorado's natural resources.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Stewardship projects, training and statewide capacity: provides essential on-the-ground work organized into over 100 annual volunteer stewardship projects involving persons of all ages from diverse communities aimed at preserving, protecting and enhancing colorado's natural resources; designs and implements new tools to teach others; and leads collaborative efforts to grow and sustain a robust natural resource stewardship community that extends beyond the organization. In 2025, 1,716 voc volunteers contributed over 27,866 hours of volunteer time valued at 1,079,529 to outdoor projects across the state.
$1,137,110 spent$62,510 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,137,110.
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 $2.6M to $3.4M (+32%).
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 28% · 2018 23% · 2019 14% · 2020 29% · 2021 33% · 2022 21% · 2023 30% · 2024 26% · 2025 26%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Christina Nesset
CEO
Board chair
Gina Lux
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 38 funders, grant income rose $193k → $426k.
10 of 79 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 79 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
VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO 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
55% 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 VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 31% · 2019 25% · 2020 21% · 2021 22% · 2022 15% · 2023 15% — 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
43% of VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO'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
VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO draws 72% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 22 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $695k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$1.1M
- Department of the Interior$450k
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 VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO: 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 VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO?
- VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO (Colorado) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,671,371 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION ($465,760). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO have?
- IRS filings report 79 organizations giving $2,671,371 in grants to VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO, 47 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO?
- NATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $465,760 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VOLUNTEERS FOR OUTDOOR COLORADO 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 Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado →
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 79 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