The Colorado Historical Society is funded by the State Historical Funds (SHF).
These funds are equal to about 30% of gambling proceeds gathered from several Colorado historical gambling towns.
The Department of Higher Education is tasked with direct oversite of the SHF - however they have no real authority over the funds or the department that issues grants with the money. Further the CHS board includes the who's who list of Denver high society. We haven't found a politician or anyone in the dept of Higher Education dumb enough (=career/high society suicide) to question any of this.