Broe Family Foundation

The Broe Family Foundation is a closely held, family-run private foundation — every officer (CEO Paula A Broe, EVP Patrick D Broe, Secretary/Treasurer Brianna Broe, Treasurer Caitlin Broe, and Directors Sean and Kevin Broe) draws zero compensation, and the foundation functions as the philanthropic arm of Denver-based The Broe Group, the rail and real-estate conglomerate founded by Pat Broe. This is not a foundation built for broad, competitive grantseeking: multiple third-party trackers (Instrumentl, Cause IQ, Grantmakers.io) and the foundation's own IRS Form 990-PF disclosures confirm it "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations" and does not solicit or accept unsolicited proposals. Grant seekers should treat this as a closed, relationship-driven funder rather than an open RFP process.

The foundation's actual grantee list (16 tracked grants, $669,999 lifetime) is instructive: 100% of dollars went to Colorado organizations, and every recipient is a well-established, high-visibility Denver-area institution — United Way ($249,999 across 3 grants), Food Bank of the Rockies ($135,000 across 3 grants), Community Foundation Boulder County ($100,000 across 2 grants), Energy Outreach Colorado ($50,000), Denver Animal Foundation ($50,000), Access Opportunity ($45,000 across 3 grants), and Mental Health Center of Denver ($40,000). This is a portfolio of basic-needs and community-infrastructure organizations, not niche or emerging nonprofits — every named grantee has broad institutional credibility and a multi-decade track record in the Denver market.

For first-time applicants, the realistic path in is indirect: build visibility through the intermediary organizations the foundation already trusts (United Way, Community Foundation Boulder County) rather than approaching Broe directly and cold. Because the foundation's IRS contact is listed as "% Pat Broe" at The Broe Group's corporate headquarters (252 Clayton Street, Denver), and because The Broe Group runs its own "Community Outreach" program that coordinates annually with local officials to identify community need, the most credible entry point is through The Broe Group's civic and volunteer relationships rather than a written proposal. Expect no formal LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline, no public deadline, and no application portal — this is relationship philanthropy concentrated in the founder's home city.

Financial trajectory (FY2014-2024, IRS Form 990-PF): total assets have hovered in a narrow $5.1M-$7.2M band for a decade — $5.76M (2014), $5.6M (2015), $5.18M (2019), $5.1M (2020), a $7.25M investment-driven peak (2021), $5.54M (2022), $6.11M (2023), and $5.96M (2024) — indicating a foundation that pays out roughly what it earns rather than compounding growth. Grants paid have moved with net investment income: $362,200 (2019), $308,333 (2020), $163,333 (2021, a down year), $253,333 (2022), $250,000 (2023), and $300,522 (2024, the most recent filed year). Total giving tracked slightly above grants paid each year — e.g., $270,475 in total giving vs. $250,000 in grants paid for 2023.

Award count has been rising even as dollar totals stay roughly flat: 6 awards in 2022 ($253,333, avg. ~$42,222), 9 awards in 2023 ($250,000, avg. ~$27,778), and 13 awards in 2024 ($300,150, avg. ~$23,088) — a clear shift toward more, smaller grants rather than fewer large ones. The foundation's own typical-grant-size metadata (drawn from 4 sampled recent awards) shows a median of $32,500, a mean of $40,833, and a range of $15,000 to $83,333, consistent with lifetime top-grantee data showing an overall average of $41,875 per relationship — from smaller multi-year commitments like Access Opportunity ($45,000 across 3 grants) up to larger single relationships like Community Foundation Boulder County ($100,000 across 2 grants).

Geographically, funding is 100% concentrated in Colorado — every one of the 16 tracked grants went to a Colorado organization, with no evidence of out-of-state giving in the available grant-level data. By program type, every tracked grantee purpose is recorded as "general operations" support, not project or capital funding, and the recipient mix skews toward basic-needs/human-services infrastructure (food security, energy assistance, mental health, animal welfare) and community-foundation intermediaries — not direct education programming, despite some third-party directories tagging the foundation under an "Education" focus area.

All five peers are drawn from the same ~$5.95M-$5.96M asset tier and share the "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE classification, meaning they are structurally similar closely-held family vehicles rather than mission-specific issue funders — a common profile for family foundations built around a single family's estate and tax planning rather than an active public grants program. None of the five peers publish annual-giving figures in the available data, and only Tsuha Foundation (TX) maintains a public website, suggesting most of this peer set operates with similarly low public visibility and, likely, similarly informal or closed application processes. Broe stands out within this tier for its unusually concentrated, single-state (Colorado) giving pattern and its transparent (if closed) disclosure that it only funds preselected organizations — grant seekers researching this asset tier of family foundation should expect minimal public information to be the norm across the whole peer set, not an exception unique to Broe.

Public news coverage of the Broe Family Foundation specifically is essentially nonexistent. The Broe Group's own newsroom (broe.com/news/), which lists 31 articles from 2015-2024, covers only corporate rail and real-estate activity — acquisitions, project completions, partnerships — with no mentions of the foundation, grants, or philanthropy. The foundation's dedicated domain (broe.org) is an unclaimed, under-construction hosting placeholder, not a working foundation website — a notable gap for a foundation of this size and family profile.

The most recent verifiable activity is administrative: the foundation's Form 990-PF for fiscal year 2024 was filed and indexed by third-party trackers (Instrumentl, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer) around April 6, 2026, reporting $300,522 in grants paid (94.8% of total expenses) across 13 awards, total revenue of $1,122,329, and total assets of $5,955,698 — up from $250,000 in grants paid across 9 awards in fiscal 2023 and $253,333 across 6 awards in fiscal 2022. This continues a multi-year trend of the foundation broadening its grantee count while its total giving budget stays roughly flat in the $250K-$300K range.

No leadership changes were found; the same six Broe family members (Paula, Patrick, Brianna, Caitlin, Sean, and Kevin Broe) have held CEO/EVP/Secretary-Treasurer/Director roles, unpaid, across every filing year reviewed. No new program announcements, RFPs, or public grant cycles were identified in web research — this remains a low-visibility, family-directed giving vehicle.

1. Do not submit an unsolicited proposal. Every third-party source (Instrumentl, Cause IQ, Grantmakers.io) and the foundation's own 990-PF disclosures confirm the Broe Family Foundation "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations." A cold LOI or application will very likely go unanswered — the foundation has no public grants portal, no application_form_url, and no listed deadline in IRS filings.

2. Target the intermediary path, not the foundation directly. The strongest documented entry points into Broe giving are large, trusted Denver-area intermediaries — United Way (its single largest relationship at $249,999 across 3 grants), Community Foundation Boulder County ($100,000 across 2 grants), and Food Bank of the Rockies ($135,000 across 3 grants). If your organization already partners with or is fiscally sponsored by one of these, that existing relationship is more actionable than a direct approach.

3. Align with the foundation's actual funding pattern, not its listed NTEE category. Despite some directories tagging the foundation under "Education," none of its seven identifiable grantee relationships fund education directly — all are basic-needs/human-services organizations (food security, energy assistance, mental health, animal welfare) or community-foundation intermediaries. Pitch general-operating impact on core services, not project-specific asks; every tracked grant purpose was recorded as "general operations."

4. Work Denver/Colorado civic channels. The foundation's IRS contact is listed as "% Pat Broe" at The Broe Group's headquarters (252 Clayton Street, 4th Floor, Denver), and The Broe Group's own Community Outreach program says it works annually with local officials to identify community need — board and volunteer visibility within Denver civic, business, and nonprofit-leadership circles (chambers of commerce, United Way leadership councils, Community Foundation Boulder County donor circles) is the realistic route to getting "preselected."

5. Keep asks modest and be patient about size. Typical awards run $15,000-$83,333 (median $32,500); even the largest single-grant relationships cap around $50,000-$100,000 across multi-year totals. Don't pitch a capital campaign or multi-year six-figure ask — this is a modest, steady, general-support funder, not a lead-gift source.

6. Common mistake to avoid: assuming an "accepting applications" flag some directories display means an open process. It reflects only that the foundation is legally active and currently making grants, not that it reviews outside applications.