Foundations of Colorado:
A project to educate about Colorado’s private foundations
As of 2020, Colorado’s non-operating private foundations held approximately $15.6 billion in assets, which translates to more than half a billion dollars in annual giving.
This project documents the foundation landscape in Colorado, including the characteristics of foundations and patterns in grantmaking, and also highlights how foundations leverage assets for greater social impact.
Detailed findings
A primary goal of the work is to inform the public and stakeholders about Colorado’s foundations, specifically non-operating private foundations, and help bring light to organizations that are often poorly understood both in their origins and activities. Highlighting promising practices in grantmaking and reporting provides guidance and examples for peer organizations.
Learn about the project
In order to document the landscape of Colorado’s private foundations, data were initially collected from the Internal Revenue Service’s Exempt Organizations Business Master File Extract. Data collection proceeded for the largest 100 non-operating private foundations based on reported assets. The majority of information used in the report comes from the publicly-available IRS Form 990-PF, which is the annual filing required for private foundations and includes grantmaking details.
Primary Findings
“Colorado’s foundation assets total approximately $15.6 billion, which represents the 16th largest amount for a state. Colorado ranks 20th out of all states for the number of foundations per capita and 21st for foundation assets per capita.”
“Foundation assets in Colorado, like elsewhere, are heavily concentrated among the largest foundations. The largest 100 foundations by asset size represent 84% of the state’s total foundation assets. The 10 largest foundations hold more than half (55%) of all foundation assets in Colorado.”
“Based on a year of activity, the state’s largest 100 foundations made 9,881 distinct grants. The median grant amount of $10,000 fell far below the average grant amount of $53,722 due to the influence of larger grants. These large foundations awarded eighty grants of $1 million or more during the year reviewed.”
“The average 5-year payout rate for Colorado’s largest foundations is 6.86% with a median of 5.24%. More than half of the foundations experienced average payout rates between 4.5% and 6.0%. Both the average and median payout rates of the state’s largest foundations exceed the 5% requirement in the federal tax code.”
“Geographically, foundations, foundation wealth, and grantees are concentrated in Front Range cities, although foundation grantmaking benefits recipients throughout the state.”
“Colorado’s foundations generally direct grantmaking to in-state causes. Colorado grantees received more than 77% of grants and 73% of grant dollars. In other words, 73 cents of every dollar of foundation grants initially remained in Colorado.”
“Foundation giving targets diverse causes and groups. Human services organizations received the most support based on the number of grants received (30% of grants), followed distantly by education (15%), public and societal benefit (13%), higher education (9%), health (9%), and arts, culture, and humanities (8%) organizations.”
“Adopting the methodology from an existing study, a recent year of grantmaking by Colorado’s largest 100 foundations resulted in $530.8 million of grants and an estimated $4.68 billion in direct benefits to the economy. The value of direct benefits for all Colorado foundations is estimated at $5.57 billion.”
“Most giving by Colorado foundations occurs via grantmaking, but some foundations actively use alternative approaches, including program and mission-related investments, to further leverage assets.”
