Skip to content
Plinth
Funding

Colorado · Nonprofit

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (Colorado) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,606,421 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($33,556,008). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$22M
Revenue FY2025
11
Funders on record
$41M
Grants received
$20M
Net assets
8/11 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 40%

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($27M) Expenses 100 ($26M) Net assets 100 ($8.2M)2018 Revenue 96 ($26M) Expenses 99 ($26M) Net assets 104 ($8.6M)2019 Revenue 128 ($35M) Expenses 131 ($34M) Net assets 110 ($9.1M)2020 Revenue 117 ($32M) Expenses 116 ($30M) Net assets 128 ($11M)2021 Revenue 63 ($17M) Expenses 58 ($15M) Net assets 152 ($13M)2022 Revenue 71 ($19M) Expenses 69 ($18M) Net assets 168 ($14M)2023 Revenue 75 ($20M) Expenses 72 ($19M) Net assets 186 ($15M)2024 Revenue 76 ($21M) Expenses 72 ($19M) Net assets 210 ($17M)2025 Revenue 81 ($22M) Expenses 75 ($20M) Net assets 238 ($20M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (81)Expenses (75)Net assets (238)

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2023 44% · 2024 41% · 2025 42%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$1.0M
17
$315k
18
$515k
19
$1.4M
20
$2.0M
21
$1.3M
22
$1.5M
23
$2.0M
24
$2.3M
25
14
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income fell $2.5M → $2.2M.

1 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)0% 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: $70k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities). These are real filings, and they are not money Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education raised.

From the IRS filings of Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education leans on a few funders — its largest provides 83% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

83%
largest funder
91%
top three
~1
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 94% · 2018 88% · 2019 78% · 2020 83% · 2021 99% · 2022 69% · 2023 45%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 Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 9 states in all.

WA
MN
WI
NY
MA
IN
PA
CA
AZ

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Colorado out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 11 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $23.6M on record — $22.4M federal, $1.2M state.

Federal$22.4M
grants $3.0Mcontracts $19.4M
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Top agencies
  • Department of Veterans Affairs$18.2M
  • Department of Health and Human Services$3.1M
  • Department of the Interior$749k
  • National Science Foundation$300k
  • Department of Justice$2k
State$1.2M
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Top programs
  • DUES/MEMBERSHIPS$1.2M
  • AGENCY PROGRAM RELATED SERVICES$30k
  • PROFESSIONAL SERVICES NON-IT$5k
  • TRAINING, EDUCATION OR INSTRUCTION SRVC$3k

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 Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Colorado

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

84% of spending goes to programs.

Program 84%Management 16%Fundraising 0%

Governance

47
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

59%

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

  • State Higher Education Policiy Center (Shepc) LLC · partnership

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education?
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (Colorado) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,606,421 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($33,556,008). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education have?
IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $40,606,421 in grants to Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education?
GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $33,556,008 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education 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.

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 11funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing