Chaffee County Community Foundation
Buena Vista, CO · EIN 26-4605574. Reported 115 grants totalling $4,428,805 to 53 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, 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 Chaffee County Community Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31).
- How spread out its giving is. 53 distinct organizations, with 25% 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. 75% 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 $9,000. Half of what it reported fell between $6,549 and $25,153; the smallest was $5,025 and the largest $878,627. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boys and Girls Clubs of Chaffee County | Salida, CO | $1,124,926 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Chaffee Housing Authority | Salida, CO | $729,286 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Watershed Np Inc | Buena Vista, CO | $400,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Central Colorado Conservancy | Salida, CO | $342,275 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Chaffee County Public Health | Salida, CO | $201,008 | 3 | 2 | 2025 |
| Riverside Ditch and Allen Extension Company | Buena Vista, CO | $153,436 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Greater Arkansas River Nature Association | Salida, CO | $121,610 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Chaffee Housing Trust | Buena Vista, CO | $111,004 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Chaffee County Hospitality Inc | Salida, CO | $110,562 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Guidestone | Salida, CO | $88,756 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Chaffee County Early Childhood Council Inc | Salida, CO | $77,728 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Colorado Firecamp Inc | Salida, CO | $76,095 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Shining Mountains Montessori School | Buena Vista, CO | $67,630 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| South Arkansas Fire Protection District | Salida, CO | $66,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Chaffee County Fire Protection District | Buena Vista, CO | $62,989 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Tn Bar Cattle Company | Salida, CO | $52,706 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Hutchinson Ranch | Salida, CO | $47,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Chaffee County Childcare | Poncha Spgs, CO | $41,006 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Full Circle Restorative Justice | Salida, CO | $39,980 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Alliance Against Domestic Abuse | Salida, CO | $37,280 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Elevateher | Buena Vista, CO | $35,617 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Achieve Inc | Buena Vista, CO | $31,506 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Salida Mountain Trails | Salida, CO | $29,974 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Foodshed Alliance | Salida, CO | $28,309 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Habitat for Humanity International Inc | Buena Vista, CO | $26,550 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| City of Salida | Salida, CO | $26,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Bv Made | Buena Vista, CO | $23,173 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Places to Age | Salida, CO | $22,758 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Ark Valley Helping Hands | Salida, CO | $19,212 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Salida Montessori Charter School Inc | Salida, CO | $18,750 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Salida Sangha Inc | Salida, CO | $18,450 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Colorado Farm to Table Inc | Salida, CO | $17,820 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Salida Senior Citizens Inc | Salida, CO | $17,439 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Bessey Nursery | Halsey, NE | $16,745 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Friends of Browns Canyon | Salida, CO | $16,550 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Neighbor to Neighbor Volunteers | Salida, CO | $12,395 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Fibark Community Paddling Center | Salida, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Salida Area Parks Open Space and Trails | Salida, CO | $9,717 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Buena Vista School District | Buena Vista, CO | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Ark-Valley Humane Society Inc | Buena Vista, CO | $8,718 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Arkansas Valley Advocates for Dyslexia | Salida, CO | $7,525 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Bv Pride Coalition | Buena Vista, CO | $7,100 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| The Salvation Army | Rch Palos Vrd, CA | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Congregational United Church of Christ | Buena Vista, CO | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Conservation Legacy | Durango, CO | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Mini Blessings | Buena Vista, CO | $5,936 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Chaffee County Search and Rescue - North | Buena Vista, CO | $5,729 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Envision Inc | Salida, CO | $5,622 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Chaffee County Amateur Hockey Association | Salida, CO | $5,582 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| New Caring & Sharing | Salida, CO | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Trailhead Institute | Denver, CO | $5,393 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Salida Concerts Inc | Salida, CO | $5,258 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Valley Fellowship Church | Buena Vista, CO | $5,200 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
26 of 53 (49%) 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.
- Boys & Girls Clubs of Chaffee County
GENERAL OPERATING FUNDS & CAPITAL MATCH - Chaffee Housing Authority
JANE'S PLACE - PRE-CONSTRUCTION PHASE 1 - Central Colorado Conservancy
ENHANCING RANCH AND RANGELAND MANAGEMENT THROUGH VIRTUAL FENCING & CONSERVATION EASEMENTS - Riverside Ditch & Allen Extension Company
RIVERSIDE DITCH AND ALLEN EXTENSION COMPANY DITCH IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE 2 - Chaffee County
TRANSFER OF FISCAL SPONSOREE TO NEW ENTITY - Colorado Firecamp Inc
FIRECAMP COMMUNITY FORESTRY
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 37 of 53 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 14 | $146,275 | $6,700 |
| 2022 | 22 | $968,410 | $9,312 |
| 2023 | 17 | $251,427 | $11,052 |
| 2024 | 24 | $486,154 | $8,455 |
| 2025 | 38 | $2,576,539 | $12,033 |
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
99% 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 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.
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 $9,000 -- 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 Chaffee County 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.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 492, Buena Vista, CO, 81211.
EIN 26-4605574 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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