Colorado · Nonprofit
Youth Documentary Academy
Youth Documentary Academy (Colorado) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $407,398 to it, the largest being PIKES PEAK COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($86,800). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $270k
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $407k
- Net assets
- $412k
What Youth Documentary Academy does
Mission
YDA prepares a new generation of underrepresented storytellers and helps them locate and amplify their voices through the art of documentary film.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Youth Media Matters pairs YDA films with mental health experts and goes into high schools to open the door to courageous conversations. Since we began Youth Media Matters in 2021, we have screened before thousands of Colorado students.
$86,652 spent44% of program spendingYDAs Summer Production Session brings together youth from Southern Colorado and pairs them with professional filmmaking mentors in the field. Over Eight weeks, youth learn every aspect of documentary film production while directing their own short personal project.
$69,219 spent36% of program spendingPBS Our Time Series - OUR TIME is a public television series acquire American Public Television that broadcasts the short films made by YDA students in our program. In 2023, OUR TIME aired on over 83 percent of PBS stations nationwide and continues to stream at PBS.org.
$38,870 spent20% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $194,741.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 2023 to 2024, from $316k to $427k (+35%).
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.
96% of Youth Documentary Academy’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (83% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 3 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
Tom Shepard
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $17k → $53k.
2 of 17 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 Youth Documentary Academy’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
Youth Documentary Academy has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
53% 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 Youth Documentary Academy.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 95% · 2019 56% · 2020 100% · 2021 70% · 2022 74% · 2023 48% — 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
40% of Youth Documentary Academy'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
85% of Youth Documentary Academy's grant income comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $97k 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
Youth Documentary Academy holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,734 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,734 youth development nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Youth Documentary Academy
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
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Youth Documentary Academy: 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 Youth Documentary Academy?
- Youth Documentary Academy (Colorado) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $407,398 to it, the largest being PIKES PEAK COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($86,800). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Youth Documentary Academy have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $407,398 in grants to Youth Documentary Academy, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Youth Documentary Academy?
- PIKES PEAK COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $86,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Youth Documentary Academy 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 Youth Documentary Academy →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2023–2025), and the filings of 17 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