Colorado · Nonprofit
Western Leaders Network
Western Leaders Network (Colorado) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,972,850 to it, the largest being UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION ($498,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $205k
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $176k
What Western Leaders Network does
Mission
We unite, support and cultivate local, tribal and state elected officials in the Interior West (Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming) and in the Ohio River Valley (Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) to protect land, air and water and build healthy, sustainable and resilient communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Western Leaders Network (WLN) and Appalachian Leaders Network (ALN) mobilize local, tribal, and state elected and appointed officials across the Interior West and Ohio River Valley to address the climate crisis, advance conservation initiatives, and protect democracy. By equipping officials with peer networks, strategic resources, and targeted engagement opportunities, WLN builds the collective capacity of more than 1,000 leaders across 11 states Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming to make an impact at the local, state, and federal levels. WLN focuses particularly on rural and extractive-industry-dependent communities in the Interior West and Appalachia that are often underserved by federal policymakers and disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It operates from the conviction that environmental protection and democratic participation are mutually reinforcing: when democracy is undermined, environmental progress stalls, and when communities bear the brunt of climate change without recourse, democratic institutions weaken. New Significant Program ServicesIn 2025, WLN meaningfully…
$185,039 spent91% of program spendingWLN's democracy program supports local, tribal, and state elected officials across the Interior West and Ohio River Valley in overseeing and strengthening free, fair, and safe democratic processes in their communities. The program provides officials with resources, peer engagement, and action opportunities related to election administration, civic participation, voting rights, and the defense of democratic norms and institutions. WLN works from the conviction that strong environmental protection depends on participatory democracy, and that local officials are uniquely positioned to defend both.In 2025, WLN organized officials in both networks to submit public comments to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission opposing a proposed rulemaking that would require documentary proof of citizenship on the federal voter registration form, a change that could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. WLN also publicly condemned politically motivated attacks on elected officials in Pennsylvania and Minnesota, affirming that public servants deserve to serve their communities free from harassment, intimidation, and harm, and that civil discourse is foundational to democratic…
$19,106 spent9% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $204,145.
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 2021 to 2022, from $89k to $231k (+159%).
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: 2020 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Western Leaders Network’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Elise Jones
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $163k → $230k.
2 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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 Western Leaders Network’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 Leaders Network has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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 Western Leaders Network.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 73% · 2019 42% · 2020 22% · 2021 48% · 2022 52% · 2023 47% — 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
54% of Western Leaders Network's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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 Leaders Network draws 92% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $156k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Western Leaders Network's funding base is broadening — from 5 funders to 6 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Western Leaders Network
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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Western Leaders Network: 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 Leaders Network?
- Western Leaders Network (Colorado) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,972,850 to it, the largest being UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION ($498,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Western Leaders Network have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $1,972,850 in grants to Western Leaders Network, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Western Leaders Network?
- UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $498,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Western Leaders Network 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 Leaders Network →
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 21 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