Colorado Youth for a Change
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 202501002
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Denver, Colorado, USA
- Phone
- (720) 994-8005
- Rating
- 90
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $6,341,031
- Expenses
- $6,824,865
- Assets
- $1,546,199
- Liabilities
- $583,154
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
20 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MARY ZANOTTI (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- MARY ZANOTTI (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $128,342 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Improve educational outcomes for Colorado students.
What it reported doing in 2025
Prevention: cyc focuses on k-3rd grade literacy, 4th-8th grade math, and 9th - 12thgrade attendance among high school age youth to address student success.1) corps for a change: engagement support americorps members provide support to high school students with 70-90% attendance and work collaboratively with school staff to increase engagement in school and reduce dropout rates for students with lower than average attendance. Members check attendance daily, make phone calls and home visits, and provide resources to remove barriers to students attending school. Cyc served 861 students through this program.2) Colorado math corps: trained americorps member tutors provide small group, 30 minute, math interventions to fourth through eighth grade students performing below grade level in math toget them on track. Cyc served 1,525 students in this program and 86% showed growth in their math skills.3) Colorado reading corps: trained americorps member tutors provide one-on-one and in pairs, 20 minute, daily literacy interventions to kindergarten through third grade students performing below grade level in reading to get them on track. Cyc served 2,093 k-3rd graders; 68% of tutored achieved more than a year's worth of growth.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 94
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 19
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 92.9%; rating input score 93
- Fundraising efficiency: $24.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -7.6%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.38; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.9%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 10 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 92.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 19 of 19 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $6.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $128K · 20 people listed
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 12/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 6/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 22/100.