The Colorado Education Initiative
Denver, CO · EIN 26-1597530. Reported 86 grants totalling $1,344,440 to 55 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For The Colorado Education Initiative, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A23) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 55 distinct organizations, with 7% 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.
- How much its list changes. 24% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $20,000; the smallest was $5,775 and the largest $71,750. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
26 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $442,500 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greeley-Evans School District 6 | Greeley, CO | $98,000 | 6 | 3 | 2024 |
| Colorado Springs School District 11 | Colorado Springs, CO | $81,750 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Aurora Public Schools | Aurora, CO | $62,050 | 3 | 2 | 2024 |
| Mesa County Valley School District 51 | Grand Junction, CO | $58,500 | 6 | 3 | 2024 |
| Cherry Creek School District 5 | Greenwood Village, CO | $51,953 | 2 | 1 | 2022 |
| Adams 12 Five Star Schools | Thornton, CO | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Harrison School District Two | Colorado Springs, CO | $45,500 | 3 | 2 | 2024 |
| Denver Public Schools | Denver, CO | $45,400 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| El Paso County School District 8 | Fountain, CO | $43,728 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Canon City Schools | Canon City, CO | $41,228 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| The Powerhouse | Durango, CO | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Jefferson County Public Schools | Golden, CO | $37,375 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Boys & Girls Clubs of Pueblo County | Pueblo, CO | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Team Up | Durango, CO | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Durango School District 9R | Durango, CO | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Early Milestones Colorado | Denver, CO | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Summit School District Re-1 | Frisco, CO | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Prairie View High School | Brighton, CO | $29,000 | 3 | 2 | 2022 |
| Westminster School District | Westminster, CO | $26,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Boulder Valley School District | Boulder, CO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pueblo Inc | Pueblo, CO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Cherry Creek School District | Greenwood Village, CO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Littleton Public Schools | Littleton, CO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Grand Beginnings | Granby, CO | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Pueblo City Schools | Pueblo, CO | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| You Be You Early Learning | Denver, CO | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Stand for Children Leadership Center | Portland, OR | $16,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Axis International Academy | Ft Collins, CO | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Co Alas | Denver, CO | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Compass Academy | Denver, CO | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| SUMMIT54 | Aspen, CO | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Swink Senior High School | Swink, CO | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| 5280 Opportunity Project | Denver, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Academy School District 20 | Colorado Springs, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Adams County School District 14 | Commerce City, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Black Parent Network | Denver, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Campus Compact | Boston, MA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Center High School | Center, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Colorado Nonprofit Development Center | Denver, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Colorado Preparatory Academy | Westminster, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Colorado Urban Leadership Foundation | Denver, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Colorado Womens Education Foundation | Boulder, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Colorado Youth for a Change | Denver, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ednium the Alumni Collective Inc | Denver, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Education & Community | Aurora, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Empower Community High School | Aurora, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Montessori Del Mundo | Aurora, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Moonshot Edventures | Denver, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Mountain View High School | Loveland, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Soccer Without Borders | Baltimore, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Strive Preparatory Schools | Denver, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Woodland Park High School | Woodland Park, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Salida R-32-J School Dist | Salida, CO | $8,728 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| St Vrain Valley School Dist Re-1J | Longmont, CO | $8,728 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Academy at High Point | Aurora, CO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
15 of 55 (27%) received money in more than one year over the 4 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.
- Colorado Springs School District 11
DEEPER LEARNING & DIFFUSION PROJECTHEWLETT SCALED IMPACT - Cherry Creek School District 5
JUMPSTART CONCURRENT ENROLLMENT - The Powerhouse
SUMMER RECOVERY COALITION SUBGRANT - Boys & Girls Clubs of Pueblo County
SUMMER RECOVERY COALITION SUB GRANT - Greeley-Evans School District 6
SERN 3 2021-2022 STIPEND FOR EARLY COLLEGE ACADEMY - Canon City Schools
CAREER CATALYZE AND DISTRICT SYSTEMS MEASUREMENT
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 21 of 55 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 31 | $479,500 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 26 | $384,940 | $10,000 |
| 2023 | 3 | $37,500 | $15,000 |
| 2024 | 26 | $442,500 | $15,000 |
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
97% 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.
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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 the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $10,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Colorado.
- 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
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Colorado Education Initiative's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 26 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: 3000 Lawrence St 135, Denver, CO, 80205.
EIN 26-1597530 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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