Colorado · Nonprofit
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY (Colorado) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,127,557 to it, the largest being THE DENVER FOUNDATION ($449,750). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $374k
What Youth Employment Academy does
Mission
The Youth Employment Academy's mission is to serve young adults in breaking the cycle of generational poverty in denver communities by gaining personal and economic stability through education, arts, technology and employment training.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The osage cafe, located in the heart of denver's lincoln park neighborhood at 1099 osage street, is denver's first community-based youth culinary training center. Here you will find a full-service cafe and catering company offering affordably priced, healthy meals made by youth ages 16 to 24 who are training for jobs in the culinary arts through the Youth Employment Academy's culinary academy. The 45-hour course offered to students includes a servsafe certification upon completion. Youth are then elgible for a paid internship at the cafe, and graduates emerge with marketable skills and experience and are assisted with education and employment placement.
$706,576 spent$371,039 earned by the program52% of program spendingYea's newest social enterprise, decatur fresh is a grocery market, workforce training program and community space. It offers local residents in the sun valley neighborhood affordable, nutritious, international food options while providing youth training in careers in customer service or grocery store management.
$446,047 spent$333,787 earned by the program33% of program spendingYea's programs seek to empower youth to reach their greatest potential in education and employment by gaining skills and positive values. Utilizing best practice strategies of positive youth development, yea acts as a stepping stone to career and educational success for students caught in the achievement gap between high school and early college. Current programming includes career academies in the demand-driven industries of culinary, customer service, and arts and technology. Academies range from short, 15-hour weekend intensives up to 70 hours of weekly training, with an average of 45 hours of skills training. Academies are held for youth from ages 14 to 21. Continued on schedule o.the culinary academy teaches youth about food safety, healthy cooking, knife skills, following a recipe, sauteing, roasting, and baking. Participants also utilize the kitchen lab at the osage cafe to learn about front- and back-of-house restaurant skills. The creative industries academies include training in skills needed for entry-level jobs in information technology, graphic design, architecture, video production, and more, utilizing a project-based curriculum for actual clients so youth learn…
$197,624 spent$66,452 earned by the program14% of program spendingMercado
$18,149 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,368,396.
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 2023 to 2024, from $3.2M to $583k (−82%).
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 5% · 2018 4% · 2019 3% · 2020 16% · 2021 3% · 2022 25% · 2023 23% · 2024 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
35% of YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Joshua Crawley
Interim CEO
Board chair
Lavonne Heaviland
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $11k → $429k.
5 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 EMPLOYMENT 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 EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
71% 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 EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 43% · 2019 39% · 2020 22% · 2021 68% · 2022 58% · 2023 60% — growing more concentrated.
“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
46% of YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
50% of YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $561k that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from Colorado funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $567k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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 EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY has grown faster than half of the 1,928 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,928 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like YOUTH EMPLOYMENT 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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 3 related entities
- The Osage Cafe LLC · disregarded
- Decatur Fresh LLC · disregarded
- Denver Housing Authority · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for YOUTH EMPLOYMENT 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 EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY?
- YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY (Colorado) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,127,557 to it, the largest being THE DENVER FOUNDATION ($449,750). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $1,127,557 in grants to YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACADEMY?
- THE DENVER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $449,750 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like YOUTH EMPLOYMENT 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 Employment Academy →
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 23 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