The Listen Foundation
Legal name: Listen Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 237060754
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Greenwood Village, CO, USA
- Phone
- (303) 781-9440
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $661,447
- Expenses
- $523,015
- Assets
- $3,126,496
- Liabilities
- $17,916
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Grant Bugner (President)
People named in this filing
- Grant Bugner (President)
- Allison Biever (Secretary)
- Doug Pollack (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Listen Foundation provides and assists children who are deaf and hard of hearing and their families, with access to a proven speech, language, and listening therapy method to help them achieve a life of independence. This method is called Listening and Spoken Language Therapy, or LSL.
What it reported doing in 2025
Early Intervention Services is a statewide, home-based early intervention program that supports newly diagnosed children with hearing loss from birth to age three. The Listen Foundation contracts directly with state agencies responsible for delivering therapy services to infants and toddlers immediately following a hearing loss diagnosis. Integrating into this state-run but federally funded program for children with disabilities has been a decades-long effort. Historically, sign language has been the primary communication option presented to parents; however, the Listen Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that families also have access to Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) therapy. Once an LSL therapist is assigned to a family for weekly home visits, a portion of the cost is funded by the government. The Listen Foundation covers the remaining costs, including therapist travel expenses, as they serve an expanding metro area. Currently, the Listen Foundation holds contracts with eight state agencies.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 65% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 67
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 76
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 64.9%; rating input score 65
- Program expense ratio: 73.7%; rating input score 74
- Fundraising efficiency: $22.81 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 59; 59th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 20.9%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.98; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.2% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 15% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.6% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 8 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 64.9% of revenue deployed · 73.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $385K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 59/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.