Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG)
The Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) is the Colorado affiliate of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US-PIRG), a left-of-center federation of advocacy organizations created by Ralph Nader. As the Colorado branch of this national advocacy federation, the organization pushes for increasing government control of health care, limiting on political speech activity, maintaining government control over broadband, and advocating for strict regulatory approaches from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 1
Contents
Finances
CoPIRG, like its affiliates, receives its funding through “hidden donations” from college students through a mechanism that rolls the donation into the lump sum amount paid for tuition, room and board, and other educational expenses. The PIRG method of revenue generation has been heavily criticized. 2
In 2017 CoPIRG received $446,712 in contributions and possessed $706,376 in assets after accounting for all liabilities. 3
Advocacy
Antibiotics Campaign
CoPIRG opposes what it claims to be an “over-prescription of antibiotics” and has called on restaurant chains like Wendy’s, Subway, KFC, and McDonald’s to halt the practice of feeding antibiotics to livestock within large-scale farming operations. 4
Government Campaign Funding
CoPIRG advocates for limitations on political speech activity and supports government control of political speech by requiring disclosure requirements for such activities. CoPIRG has successfully pushed for a campaign finance law in Denver, Colorado, that allows the government to match any eligible small contribution of $50 or less with a 9 to 1 government-funded match to prop up candidates who are not successful at obtaining financial support through fundraising. 5
Voter Registration
CoPIRG claims to support “easy, accurate, and automatic” voter registration. CoPIRG supports Colorado’s automatic DMV registration method which allows individuals to automatically be registered whenever they interact with the DMV. 6
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
CoPIRG has advocated against attempts to reform the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The organization, referring to Senate Democrats as “our Senators,” has called upon Senate Democrats to oppose any reform limiting or reforming the powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 7
CoPIRG has called upon Congress to strengthen and enlarge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, claiming that this is necessary to defend homes and retirement savings from “constant attacks from Wall Street.” 7
COVID-19
CoPIRG has criticized Governor Jared Polis (D) for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Colorado. CoPIRG has claimed that “more aggressive action” was required and that by failing to lock down the state more strictly by closing indoor dining and limiting travel, Gov. Polis failed to provide an adequate response to the pandemic. 8
Leadership
Danny Katz is the state director of CoPIRG. Katz is also a member of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Efficiency and Accountability Committee and Transit and Rail Advisory Committee. He is a founding member of the Financial Equity Coalition, an organization that works to increase public participation in entitlement programs. 9
Financial Statistics
Total Assets
Total Revenue
Total Expenses
Revenue Detail
Expenses Detail
Employee Compensation
- Number of Employees: 3
Highest Earning Employees
| Employee | Title | Total Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Danny Katz | State Director, President, Director | $85,622 |
Grant Activity
All-time grants received statistics from Candid dataset:
- Total Grant Value: $277,800
- Number of Grants: 9
- Number of Funders: 6
Selection of highest value grants received from the last seven years: