Colorado · Nonprofit
WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM
WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM (Colorado) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,820,559 to it, the largest being RAY FOUNDATION INC ($5,030,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.6M
- Funders on record
- 43
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum does
Mission
The organization's mission is to educate and inspire people of all ages about aviation and space endeavors of the past, present, and future.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum is a public museum that displays numerous aircraft and other air and space collections. The museum's primary exempt purpose is to enhance, preserve, and exhibit the heritage of military, civil, and commercial aviation and space-age involvement in the state of colorado and the rocky mountain region while educating and inspiring people of all ages about aviation and space endeavors in the past, present, and future. The collection housed by the museum includes aircraft from the earliest days of flight to the space age. An interactive education program challenges youth to explore the adventure of flight. Wings over the rockies was designated as colorado's official air and space museum by the colorado state legislature in 1996.
$4,253,642 spent$2,649,702 earned by the program82% of program spendingThe "spreading wings" pilot pathway scholarship program: this represents a scholarship program funded by the ray foundation that guides students on their path to becoming a pilot by providing comprehensive aviation education opportunities with low-to-zero financial barriers, allowing youth of any circumstance to participate in aerospace education and opportunities. This unique program is designed to inspire interest and potential in pilot training and professional aerospace careers among a motivated selection of middle and high school students. In 2024, wings awarded 28 new flight training scholarships and had 15 total students earn their private pilot license and another 33 achieve their solo flight certificate. The optimized scholarship funding program administered by wings over (con't on sch d) the rockies provides pilot training to solo and beyond, including the introduction to a wide range of professional aerospace careers.
$307,206 spentof which $300,000 as grants$307,206 earned by the program6% of program spendingWings aerospace exploration (wae) is a weekly enrichment program for middle and high school students interested in aviation and aerospace. The exploration pathway is centered on hands-on project-based learning that prepares students for a future in aerospace. In 2024, 72 students met weekly to participate in a hands-on experimental learning program with an aerospace focus. Of the total students, 42 participated in our middle school program and 30 were enrolled in our high school program. Each student has the option to participate in dual enrollment courses and earn industry certifications. Of the total students, 2 received college credit from spartan aeronautics and technology college, 9 students earned the faa part 107 drone pilot certificate and 8 students participated in the stellarxplorers national (con't on sch d) competition. The incredible hands-on experiences through the wae program includes everything from building an experimental faa certified aircraft to designing and building unmanned aerial vehicles (uav) such as radio-controlled aircraft, drones and helicopters. In addition, wae students have the opportunity to interact with mentors across the aviation and aerospace…
$523,330 spent$153,886 earned by the program10% of program spendingThe spreading the wings teacher flight program: wings over the rockies air and space museum invites colorado teachers to take a free flight with the spreading the wings teacher flight program. The program, funded by the ray foundation, helps bring aviation to the classroom by offering colorado teachers from every elementary, middle and high school within colorado with the opportunity to take a 30-minute flight in a variety of small 2 or 4 seat piston prop aircraft, including a vintage t-34 military training aircraft. In addition to enjoying the freedom and inspiration of flight, teachers become the spreading the wings coordinators for the museum and gain aviation resources and curriculum to share with their students in virtually all stem subject areas. The teachers become an important conduit for sharing wings' programs and educational opportunities with their school communities. The program complements stem education by helping to introduce and engage students in important scientific and engineering concepts, as well as allowing students to explore and learn about exciting opportunities within aviation and aerospace. In 2024, 17 colorado teachers took flight within the wings…
$119,034 spent$119,034 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,203,212.
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 2017 to 2018, from $17M to $20M (+14%).
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 7% · 2018 12% · 2019 8% · 2020 27% · 2021 30% · 2022 13% · 2023 9% · 2024 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
42% of WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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
John L Barry
President/chief executive officer
Board chair
Charlie Johnson
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 17 funders, grant income fell $1.7M → $1.6M.
12 of 43 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 43 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
WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
30% 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 WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 65% · 2019 54% · 2020 54% · 2021 90% · 2022 40% · 2023 64% — 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
39% of WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM draws 79% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $12M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $18k on record.
- Department of Homeland Security$18k
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 WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM
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
62%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM: 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 WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM?
- WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM (Colorado) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,820,559 to it, the largest being RAY FOUNDATION INC ($5,030,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 43 organizations giving $11,820,559 in grants to WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM?
- RAY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $5,030,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM 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 Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 43 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