FundersColorado

Forever Our Rivers Foundation

Grand Junction, CO · EIN 81-3496752. Reported 22 grants totalling $734,958 to 17 organizations across tax years 2021-2023. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$8,000median grant
$734,958granted, 2021-2023
17organizations funded
50%of grantees funded again the next year
$1,035,328assets, latest filing

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Forever Our Rivers Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $8,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $4,000 and $39,408; the smallest was $2,475 and the largest $318,731. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$1,000 - $5,000
7 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
5 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
1 grant
$25,000 - $50,000
7 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
1 grant
$100,000 and Up
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Conservation LegacyDurango, CO$318,731112023
Riversedge WestGrand Junction, CO$113,703222022
Friends of the Verde RiverCottonwood, AZ$83,729222022
Gila Watershed PartnershipThatcher, AZ$76,482222022
Grand Staircase Escalante PartnersKanab, UT$39,408112022
Grand Staicase Escalante PartnersKanab, UT$37,680112021
Colorado West Land TrustGrand Junction, CO$10,475222023
Lincoln Hills CaresDenver, CO$10,000112023
Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration ProjectAlamosa, CO$8,000112023
Colorado Canyons AssociationGrand Junction, CO$7,000222023
Colorado Water TrustDenver, CO$7,000112023
Friends of Youth and NatureHotchkiss, CO$5,000112023
Western Slope Conservation CenterPaonia, CO$5,000112022
San Juan Citizens AllianceDurango, CO$4,000112023
High Country Conservation AdvocatesCrested Butte, CO$3,750112022
Eureka Mcconnell Science MuseumGrand Junction, CO$2,500112023
Right - Rio Grande Headwaters Land TrustDel Norte, CO$2,500112023

5 of 17 (29%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 50%, across 2 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.

Plus 9 grants to individuals totalling $306,036 -- scholarships, hardship and emergency assistance. We deliberately do not publish the names of people who received them, even though the filings do.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 17 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Environment
9 grants
Arts & Culture
2 grants
Youth Development
2 grants
Recreation & Sports
2 grants
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
2 grants

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
20214$151,369$37,353
20228$215,358$22,204
202310$368,231$6,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Where its money goes

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 68% of this one's giving went to organizations in Colorado. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Colorado
$498K
Arizona
$160K
Utah
$77K

Find more foundations like Forever Our Rivers Foundation

We email you newly filed foundations whose giving matches your state and cause, as the IRS publishes them. Free.

No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.

Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are the strongest available signal 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.

Colorado Gives Foundation10 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund8 shared recipientsNational Fish and Wildlife Foundation7 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc7 shared recipientsWestern Colorado Community6 shared recipientsNational Forest Foundation5 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $8,000. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
  2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Colorado.
  3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
  4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Forever Our Rivers Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 601 Rambling Road, Grand Junction, CO, 81507. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 81-3496752 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next -- and a much better basis for deciding whether to write to them than a mission statement.

Is something here wrong about your foundation? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.