Grantmakers › Colorado

Denver Post Community Foundation

Denver, CO · EIN 27-4328521. Reported 278 grants totalling $8,173,500 to 80 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.

80organizations funded
$25,000median reported grant
$8,173,500granted, 2021-2025
77%of grantees funded again the next year
8%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Denver Post Community Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 80 distinct organizations, with 8% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 77% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $25,000. Half of what it reported fell between $20,000 and $30,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $140,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
2 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
120 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
131 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
16 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
9 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Denver Kids IncDenver, CO$665,000552025
Tennyson Center for Children at Colorado Christian HomeDenver, CO$600,000552025
The Yess InstituteDenver, CO$255,000552025
Colorado UpliftAurora, CO$220,000332025
Food Bank of the RockiesAurora, CO$215,000552025
Wedontwaste IncDenver, CO$195,000552025
Childrens Hospital ColoradoAurora, CO$185,000652025
Volunteers of America Colorado BranchDenver, CO$175,000652025
Colorado Lifted FoundationDenver, CO$174,500552025
Jewish Family Service of Colorado IncDenver, CO$169,000552025
Community Food Share IncLouisville, CO$155,000442025
Project Angel HeartDenver, CO$155,000442025
Kids in Need of DentistryCommerce City, CO$154,500552025
Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis CenterWestminster, CO$145,000552025
Every Child PediatricsThornton, CO$135,000632024
Metro CaringDenver, CO$135,000442024
National Jewish HealthDenver, CO$135,000552025
The Denver Health and Hospitals FoundationDenver, CO$135,000652025
Colorado Youth for a ChangeDenver, CO$134,500442025
Warren Village IncDenver, CO$130,000442025
City Year IncBoston, MA$125,000552025
The Delores ProjectDenver, CO$125,000442025
Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver IncDenver, CO$122,000442025
Family Tree IncWheatridge, CO$120,000442025
Denver Childrens Advocacy CenterDenver, CO$119,500552025
Denver Rescue MissionDenver, CO$115,000442025
Jewish Community Centers of DenverDenver, CO$115,000552025
Urban Peak DenverDenver, CO$115,000552025
Judis HouseAurora, CO$114,500552025
Kids First Health CareCommerce City, CO$110,000442025
Second Wind Fund IncDenver, CO$109,500552025
Save Our Youth IncDenver, CO$104,500442025
JewishcoloradoDenver, CO$100,000552025
Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Colorado IncDenver, CO$99,500442025
Doctors CareLittleton, CO$94,500442025
Griffith Centers IncNorthglenn, CO$90,500332025
Boulder Shelter for the Homeless IncBoulder, CO$90,000332025
Catholic Charities and Community Services of the Archdiocese of DenDenver, CO$90,000442024
Colorado Coalition for the HomelessDenver, CO$90,000442025
Attention IncBoulder, CO$85,000442024
Denver Public Schools FoundationDenver, CO$85,000442025
Denver Scholarship FoundationDenver, CO$85,000552025
Hunger Free ColoradoDenver, CO$85,000442025
Mile High MinistriesDenver, CO$85,000442025
Outreach United Resource Center IncLongmont, CO$85,000332024
Sacred Heart House of DenverDenver, CO$85,000442025
The Gathering Place a Refuge for Rebuilding LivesDenver, CO$85,000442025
Childrens Literacy Center IncColorado Springs, CO$80,000332023
Growing Home IncWestminster, CO$80,000442025
Jeffco Action Center IncLakewood, CO$80,000442025
Impact on EducationLouisville, CO$70,000442024
Food for HopeEastlake, CO$69,500332025
Harvest Mountain MinistriesLakewood, CO$64,500332025
Colorado Health Network IncDenver, CO$60,000332024
Denver Jewish Day SchoolDenver, CO$50,000222025
Mi CASA Resource CenterDenver, CO$50,000332023
Reading PartnersOakland, CA$50,000332025
Girls Incorporated of Metro DenverDenver, CO$45,000442025
Inner City Health CenterDenver, CO$45,000332024
Immunize ColoradoAurora, CO$40,000332025
Regis UniversityDenver, CO$40,000222022
Access Housing of Adams County IncBroomfield, CO$35,000222023
Dental Aid IncLouisville, CO$35,000112021
Emergency Family Assistance Association IncBoulder, CO$35,000332024
Denver Youth ProgramDenver, CO$30,000222023
A Little HelpDenver, CO$25,000112024
Florence Crittenton Services of ColoradoDenver, CO$25,000112021
Breakthrough Kent DenverEnglewood, CO$20,000112023
Deserving Dental OrgBroomfield, CO$20,000222024
Friends First IncGreenwood Village, CO$20,000112021
Summer ScholarsDenver, CO$20,000112025
Senior Support ServicesDenver, CO$15,000112025
A Precious Child IncWestminster, CO$10,000112025
Denver Inner City Parish IncDenver, CO$10,000112025
Mile High 360Denver, CO$10,000112023
Rise Against SuicideLafayette, CO$10,000112023
The Buddy Program IncAspen, CO$10,000112023
Three Birds AllianceAurora, CO$10,000112025
Denver Center for the Performing ArtsDenver, CO$6,500112023
Team UpDurango, CO$6,000112021

65 of 80 (81%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 68 of 80 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
18 orgs
Education
9 orgs
Health Care
8 orgs
Food & Nutrition
5 orgs
Housing & Shelter
5 orgs
Youth Development
4 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
3 orgs

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202153$1,776,000$30,000
202251$1,700,000$30,000
202363$1,571,500$20,000
202456$1,496,000$20,000
202555$1,630,000$25,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

98% of its giving went to organizations in Colorado. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Colorado
$8.0M
Massachusetts
$125K
California
$50K

Down to the city

Denver, CO
$5.3M
Aurora, CO
$784K
Commerce City, CO
$264K
Louisville, CO
$260K
Westminster, CO
$235K
Boulder, CO
$210K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Colorado Gives Foundation70 shared recipientsThe Denver Foundation63 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund62 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc60 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc57 shared recipientsMile High United Way Inc47 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $25,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Colorado.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding education in ColoradoEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Denver Post Community Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 55 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 5990 Washington St, Denver, CO, 80216.

EIN 27-4328521 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.