Skip to content
Breakthrough Charter Schools at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Breakthrough Charter Schools

The breakthrough public schools mission is to provide cleveland area scholars with an education that empowers them to lead lives full of impact and opportunity.

$2.0M
Granted FY2018
8
Grants FY2018
1
States reached
$634k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2018.

Education$4.0M
02FY2018 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2018

  • $50k–250k6 grants · $903k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.1M
$180,625
Median grant
1
States reached
$3.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CITIZENS ACADEMY$633,854
VILLAGE PREP SCH WOODLAND HTS$450,699
VILLAGE PREP CLIFFS SCHOOL$235,369
LAKESHORE INTERGENERATIONAL SCHOOL$180,625
CITIZENS ACADEMY EAST$138,266
CITIZENS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY$138,159
E PREP CLIFFS SCHOOL$130,568
E PREP SCHOOL WH$79,779
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–18) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 15%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 15%CITIZENS ACADEMY SOUTHEAST: $201k → 17%VILLAGE PREP CLIFFS SCHOOL: $276k → 17%VILLAGE PREP CLIFFS SCHOOL: $235k → 17%E PREP CLIFFS SCHOOL: $153k → 17%E PREP CLIFFS SCHOOL: $131k → 17%FRIENDS OF BCS: $89k → 17%LAKESHORE INTERGENERATIONAL SCHOOL: $181k → 17%LAKESHORE INTERGENERATIONAL SCHOOL: $7k → 17%VILLAGE PREP SCH WOODLAND HTS: $465k → 17%CITIZENS ACADEMY: $634k → 17%VILLAGE PREP SCH WOODLAND HTS: $451k → 17%CITIZENS ACADEMY EAST: $270k → 17%E PREP SCHOOL WH: $118k → 17%CITIZENS ACADEMY: $192k → 17%E PREP SCHOOL WH: $80k → 17%CITIZENS ACADEMY EAST: $138k → 17%CITIZENS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY: $220k → 17%CITIZENS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY: $138k → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.9M · 8 repeat orgs$89k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +27% since the first grant, against -53% for those funded once.

8 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2018, 0 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
1

Total granted

$3.9M
$89k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+27%
-53%

Still filing today

38%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2018, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18
RenewedFirst-time
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • VP
    Village Preparatory School Woodland Hills
    2× · 2017–2018 · $916k · revenue +97%
  • CA
    Citizens Academy
    2× · 2017–2018 · $826k · revenue +7%
  • VP
    Village Preparatory School
    2× · 2017–2018 · $511k · revenue +150%

Funded once

  • FO
    FRIENDS OF BREAKTHROUGH SCHOOLS
    one grant, 2017 · $89k · revenue -53%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Citizens Leadership Academy East

To prepare middle school students to lead in academics service, and civic engagement during high school, college and beyond.

Education
2
Citizens Academy Southeast

The mission of Citizens Academy Southeast is to produce learners who exemplify academic excellence and responsible citizenship.

Education
3
Village Preparatory School Iii

The School's mission is to seek to provide a high quality, academically rigorous education for the college bound scholars. The School empowers their scholars to think critically, assume social responsibility and serve as advocates for…

Education
4
Breakthrough Public Schools

The breakthrough public schools mission is to provide cleveland area scholars with an education that empowers them to lead lives full of impact and opportunity.

Education
5
Golden Bridge Academy

Primary Education

—
6
Cleveland College Preparatory School

Our mission is to prepare students for a college preparatory high school that will ensure success and graduation from a four year college

Education
7
Burhan Academy

Burhan Academy provides high-quality, full-time education for Pre-K to 12th grade students, focusing on strong academics, character development, and personal growth. The school is dedicated to creating a supportive learning environment…

Education
8
University of Cleveland Preparatory School

Our mission is to prepare students for a college preparatory high school that will ensure success and graduation and acceptance into a four year college.

Education
9
Bradford Preparatory School

Bradford is a college preparatory school committed to academic excellence, nurturing personal relationships, and inspiring a growing passion for creativity and learning in all of our students.

Education
10
Bridges Community Academy

The Mission of Bridges Preparatory Academy is to create lifelong learners through high-quality primary education and social skills.

—
11
Charlotte Preparatory School Inc

Charlotte Preparatory School fosters lifelong learning and provides an exemplary educational experience founded on academic excellence, positive character, and leadership development in a diverse, inclusive community.

Education
12
Breakthrough Birmingham

Breakthrough Birmingham works with highly motivated, traditionally underrepresented students in Alabama to achieve post-secondary success while empowering aspiring leaders to become the next generation of educators and advocates.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Citizens Academy; the most unlike its peers is Lakeshore Intergenerational School. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

8 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 9 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
4/8
Grantees still filing
6/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Village Preparatory School Woodland Hills: $915,896 · EducationVillage Preparatory School Woodland HillsVillage Preparatory School: $510,945 · EducationVillage Preparatory SchoolCitizens Leadership Academy: $357,672 · EducationCitizens Leadership AcademyLakeshore Intergenerational School: $187,612 · EducationLakeshore Intergenerational SchoolFRIENDS OF BREAKTHROUGH SCHOOLS: $88,579 · EducationCitizens Academy: $826,275 · OtherCitizens AcademyCitizens Academy East: $609,036 · OtherCitizens Academy EastCleveland Entrepreneurship Prep: $283,125 · OtherCleveland Entrepreneurship PrepE PREP WOODLAND HILLS: $197,737 · OtherE PREP WOODLAND HILLS
Education$2,060,704Other$1,916,173

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetVillage Preparatory School Woodland Hills: $915,896 over 2y, 8.6% of budgetCitizens Academy: $826,275 over 2y, 13% of budgetCitizens Academy East: $609,036 over 2y, 9.8% of budgetVillage Preparatory School: $510,945 over 2y, 5.3% of budgetCitizens Leadership Academy: $357,672 over 2y, 6.6% of budgetCleveland Entrepreneurship Prep: $283,125 over 2y, 3.9% of budgetLakeshore Intergenerational School: $187,612 over 2y, 7.5% of budgetFRIENDS OF BREAKTHROUGH SCHOOLS: $88,579 over 1y, 0.6% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Friends of Breakthrou…
Friends of Breakthrough SchoolsOH22× affinity8 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Friends of Breakthrough Schools

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Breakthrough Charter Schools funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Breakthrough Charter Schools. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 9 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2018, released 2018. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2018, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Breakthrough Charter Schools’ filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home