Skip to content
The Foundation for Lee County Public Schools Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

The Foundation for Lee County Public Schools Inc

We enhance and enrich the quality of the public education in lee county for students and educators through programs, resources and experiences made possible through corporate, individual and educational partnerships.

$421k
Granted FY2025still arriving
17
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$185k
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 2025.

Education$3.9MArts & Culture$20k
02FY2025 · 17 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 17 grants below total $314,605, the rows itemized in this filing. The $420,795 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $106,190 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k12 grants · $77k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $52k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $185k
$6,816
Median grant
1
States reached
$6.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FL PREPAID COLLEGE FDN$184,805
FL GULF COAST UNIV$15,499
FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE$15,453
HARNS MARSH MIDDLE SCHOOL$11,240
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA$10,137
NORTH FORT MYERS HIGH SCHOOL$9,080
TRAFALGAR MIDDLE SCHOOL$7,120
BUCKINGHAM EXCEPTIONAL STUDENT CENT$6,889
MARINER HIGH SCHOOL$6,816
ALLEN PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL$6,708
TICE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL$6,468
PINEWOODS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL$6,100
TRAFALGAR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL$6,100
FLORIDA STATE UNIV$5,774
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA$5,636
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 (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%FL ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY: $8k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA: $31k → 13%FLORIDA STATE UNIV: $14k → 19%FLORIDA STATE UNIV: $10k → 19%FL GULF COAST UNIV: $28k → 11%FLORIDA STATE UNIV: $9k → 19%FL GULF COAST UNIV: $21k → 11%FL GULF COAST UNIV: $16k → 11%FL GULF COAST UNIV: $15k → 11%FL GULF COAST UNIV: $13k → 11%FL GULF COAST UNIV: $10k → 11%FORT MYERS TECHNICAL COLLEGE: $28k → 11%FORT MYERS TECHNICAL COLLEGE: $14k → 11%HECTOR A CAFFERATA JR ELEMENTARY: $9k → 11%FORT MYERS TECHNICAL COLLEGE: $9k → 11%NORTH FORT MYERS HIGH SCHOOL: $9k → 11%THE SANIBEL SCHOOL: $78k → 11%THE SANIBEL SCHOOL: $67k → 11%THE SANIBEL SCHOOL: $60k → 11%THE SANIBEL SCHOOL: $54k → 11%THE SANIBEL SCHOOL: $10k → 11%VARIOUS SCHOOLS 5000: $135k → 11%VARIOUS SCHOOLS 5000: $104k → 11%VARIOUS SCHOOLS 5000: $77k → 11%VARIOUS SCHOOLS 5000: $77k → 11%THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LEE CO: $50k → 11%ESTERO HIGH SCHOOL: $9k → 11%THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LEE CO: $13k → 11%THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LEE CO: $10k → 11%THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LEE CO: $10k → 11%THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LEE CO: $8k → 11%HARNS MARSH MIDDLE SCHOOL: $11k → 11%VARSITY LAKES MIDDLE SCHOOL: $9k → 11%TRAFALGAR MIDDLE SCHOOL: $9k → 11%TRAFALGAR MIDDLE SCHOOL: $9k → 11%CAPE CORAL HIGH SCHOOL: $8k → 11%TRAFALGAR MIDDLE SCHOOL: $8k → 11%BONITA SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL: $44k → 11%FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE: $25k → 11%FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE: $19k → 11%FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE: $16k → 11%FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE: $15k → 11%FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE: $15k → 11%FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE: $14k → 11%FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE: $12k → 11%FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE: $11k → 11%FL SOUTH WESTERN ST COLLEGE: $9k → 11%FORT MYERS HIGH SCHOOL: $8k → 11%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.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.8M · 8 repeat orgs$52k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +137% since the first grant, against +49% for those funded once.

8 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
3

Total granted

$3.8M
$46k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+137%
+49%

Still filing today

13%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
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

  • FP
    FLORIDA PREPAID COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $2.2M
  • SD
    SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LEE COUNTY
    9× · 2017–2025 · $973k
  • NF
    NORTH FORT MYERS HIGH SCHOOL
    7× · 2019–2025 · $230k

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA FOUNDATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $31k · revenue +52%
  • FA
    FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $8k · revenue +49%
  • FI
    FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY INC
    one grant, 2018 · $7k · revenue +24%
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
04the grantee network

4 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. 4 of the 12 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)
4/4
Grantees still filing
4/4
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FLORIDA PREPAID COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $2,173,815 · OtherFLORIDA PREPAID COLLEGE FOUNDATION INCSCHOOL DISTRICT OF LEE COUNTY: $973,012 · OtherSCHOOL DISTRICT OF LEE COUNTYNORTH FORT MYERS HIGH SCHOOL: $229,738 · OtherNORTH FORT MYERS HIGH SCHOOLUNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: $131,367 · OtherFLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY: $125,586 · Other+3 more: $70,859 · OtherFLORIDA SOUTHWESTERN STATE COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $136,036 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA FOUNDATION INC: $31,000 · EducationFLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $8,250 · EducationFLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY INC: $7,000 · Education
Other$3,704,377Education$182,286

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetFLORIDA SOUTHWESTERN STATE COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $136,036 over 9y, 0.6% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA FOUNDATION INC: $31,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $8,250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY INC: $7,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

  • Who funds FLORIDA SOUTHWESTERN STATE COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY INC ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Foundation for Lee County Public Schools Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Foundation for Lee County Public Schools Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • Florida Institute of Technology Inc: 3% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
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 12 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Foundation for Lee County Public 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