Colorado · Nonprofit
Western Resource Advocates
Western Resource Advocates (Colorado) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $55,188,054 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($6,690,000). 77 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $12M
- Funders on record
- 116
- Grants received
- $55M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Western Resource Advocates does
Mission
Western Resource Advocates (WRA) is a regional nonprofit advocacy organization fighting climate change and its impacts to sustain the environment, economy, and people of the West. As the region's go-to experts for more than three decades, WRA's on-the-ground work advances clean energy, protects air, land, water, and wildlife. WRA develops, advocates for, and implements science-based policies informed by diverse communities and stakeholders to create a healthier and more equitable future for all Western communities. WRA creates transformational change by driving action at the state level to effectively address complex conservation problems in the West.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Clean Energy - The vision of our clean energy work is that our homes, buildings and transportation systems will be powered by clean energy and the West is prospering in a zero-carbon economy. WRA uses public policy to align the financial interests of electricity producers and consumers with decarbonizing electricity production and electrifying other sectors of the economy. By working to retire coal, replace generation with clean energy and transportation, advance clean energy markets, and modernize the grid, WRA is transforming the region.
$7,407,337 spentof which $52,000 as grants$110,870 earned by the program60% of program spendingHealthy Rivers - The vision of our healthy rivers work is that Western rivers are thriving even in the face of climate change and these critical waterways are protected to support ecosystems, local communities, and world-class recreation. Water is conserved and key river reaches are revitalized and managed to support healthy river ecology, sustainable water use, and resilience to a changing climate. WRA develops, advocates for, and implements policies, programs and river management that saves water and protects rivers through improving stream flow, reducing water use, and improved water planning.
$2,842,093 spentof which $52,284 as grants$214,487 earned by the program23% of program spendingWestern Lands - The vision of our Western lands work is that at least half of the land in each major ecoregion are legally protected in order to conserve biodiversity in the face of rapid habitat loss and climate change. Public lands need to be shielded from new development, restored, and managed sustainably for ecological health. Layers of protections ensure diverse wildlife habitat, thriving populations of native species, and enduring cultural values of lands and watersheds.
$2,101,432 spentof which $50,000 as grants17% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $12,350,862.
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 $15M to $21M (+45%).
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: 2018 1% · 2020 10% · 2021 9% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Western Resource Advocates’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (95% 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
Jamie Starr
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 25 funders to 60 funders, grant income rose $2.0M → $9.8M.
26 of 116 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 Resource Advocates’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 116 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
Western Resource Advocates has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
47% 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 Resource Advocates.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 58% · 2019 24% · 2020 15% · 2021 23% · 2022 18% · 2023 16% — 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
61% of Western Resource Advocates's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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 Resource Advocates draws 74% 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. $13M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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 Resource Advocates holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 165 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 165 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like Western Resource Advocates
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
81% 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
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Environmental Center of the Rockies · exempt
- WRA Action Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Western Resource Advocates: 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 Resource Advocates?
- Western Resource Advocates (Colorado) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $55,188,054 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($6,690,000). 77 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Western Resource Advocates have?
- IRS filings report 116 organizations giving $55,188,054 in grants to Western Resource Advocates, 77 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Western Resource Advocates?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $6,690,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Western Resource Advocates 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 116 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