Colorado · Nonprofit
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (Colorado) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,653,121 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($33,556,008). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $22M
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $41M
- Net assets
- $20M
What Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education does
Mission
The sixteen members of wiche work collaboratively to promote higher education in the west.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Mental health program - to improve the quality of mental health services in the west.
$9,392,656 spent$3,820,910 earned by the program57% of program spendingEducational telecommunication - to promote access to and utilization of broadband networks for education, research, and health care in the west.
$4,943,664 spent$2,028,214 earned by the program30% of program spendingPolicy analysis and research - to improve higher education policymaking in the west.
$1,670,733 spent$666,047 earned by the program10% of program spendingProfessional student exchange program (psep) - in conjunction with fifteen western states and the u.s. Pacific territories and freely associated states, wiche operates an interstate compact organization created by the u.s. Congress to exchange students between states in order to promote higher education in the west through collaboration and cooperation and filling the various needs between the states and territories by reducing duplicate costs and creating greater efficiencies.
$481,851 spent$481,851 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $16,488,904.
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.
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 $16M to $20M (+26%).
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: 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.
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 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income fell $2.5M → $2.2M.
1 of 13 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
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; 62% 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
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
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.
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.
- 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
- 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
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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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.
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 Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education?
- Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (Colorado) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,653,121 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 13 organizations giving $40,653,121 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.
Play a game about who funds Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education →
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 13 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