How much does The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education give?

The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education reported 36 grants totaling $12,889,499 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 8 and 34 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2024.

What does The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education fund?

By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (91%), Environment (4%), Health (2%).

Who are The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2019 to FY2025: Kairos Academies ($3.3M), City Garden Montessori School ($2.7M), Navigate STL Schools ($2.4M).

Does The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 29% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include St Louis Community Foundation Inc, Commerce Bancshares Foundation, St Louis Community Foundation.

Where is The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education based?

The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education is based in MO.

Foundation Dossiers Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

Missouri · Public charity

The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education

The opportunity trust invests in educators and school systems eager to build the capacity required to make significant and measurable change.

$13M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 36
Grants FY2025: 28
Organizations funded FY2024: 29%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $157,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $1,488,050
Organizations funded a year: 8 to 34; FY2019 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 4
Total assets, FY2025: $4.0M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 29% of the organizations The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education funded were first-time grantees, receiving 1% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $49k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

EducationHealthHuman ServicesArts & CultureCivil RightsCommunity ImprovementOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	36	$13M	36%
FY2024	28	$5.9M	29%
FY2023	34	$5.1M	50%
FY2022	28	$4.3M	50%
FY2021	18	$2.9M	44%
FY2020	13	$2.1M	46%
FY2019	8	$1.6M	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Education$33MEnvironment$1.6MHealth$770kCommunity Improvement$392kEmployment$178kArts & Culture$99kCivil Rights$81kHuman Services$34kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2019 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Kairos Academies	$3,276,205	7	28%
City Garden Montessori School	$2,731,423	7	10%
Navigate STL Schools	$2,358,397	5	100%
Believe Circle City High School Inc	$2,192,450	3	24%
The Leadership School	$2,104,552	5	99%
Atlas Public Schools	$2,093,518	4	48%
Teach St Louis	$1,839,500	7	50%
Kipp St Louis	$1,721,205	7	1%
The School District of University City	$1,625,070	7	n/a
Premier Charter School	$1,584,750	5	4%

Show all 49 grantees

All grantees of The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Kairos Academies	$3,276,205	7	28%
City Garden Montessori School	$2,731,423	7	10%
Navigate STL Schools	$2,358,397	5	100%
Believe Circle City High School Inc	$2,192,450	3	24%
The Leadership School	$2,104,552	5	99%
Atlas Public Schools	$2,093,518	4	48%
Teach St Louis	$1,839,500	7	50%
Kipp St Louis	$1,721,205	7	1%
The School District of University City	$1,625,070	7	n/a
Premier Charter School	$1,584,750	5	4%
Momentum Academy Inc	$1,443,297	4	3%
Gateway Science Academy of St Louis	$1,341,627	2	4%
Teach for America Inc	$1,114,000	6	0%
Normandy Schools Collaborative	$863,400	3	n/a
Association of Missouri Charter Schools	$750,000	3	10%
Friendly Academy	$746,607	1	100%
The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital	$740,000	1	n/a
Bsds Inc Brookside Charter School	$376,187	1	2%
Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls	$325,500	4	5%
Wepower	$295,000	4	12%
Ferguson-Florissant School District	$160,000	2	n/a
St Louis University	$154,074	3	0%
Progress in Education Inc	$141,950	3	2%
Greenhouse E3	$132,500	1	4%
Southside Early Childhood Center	$122,700	3	1%
Beginning Futures 2 Inc	$119,500	4	18%
Forward Through Ferguson	$81,000	1	7%
St Louis Black Authors of Childrens Literature	$72,500	2	15%
Activate Stl	$51,500	1	n/a
Counterpublic	$50,000	1	3%
Edhub Stl	$50,000	1	n/a
Lafayette Preparatory Academy Inc	$32,750	2	0%
Camelback Ventures	$30,000	1	1%
St Louis Language Immersion School	$29,200	2	0%
Lift for Life Academy Inc	$25,000	2	0%
Metro Theater Company	$25,000	2	1%
In Purpose Educational Services	$25,000	1	n/a
Show Me The World Project	$23,500	2	10%
Parents as Teachers National Center Inc	$20,000	1	0%
St Louis City League	$19,500	1	18%
The Youth and Family Center	$10,000	1	1%
Covenant House Missouri	$10,000	1	0%
LitShop	$10,000	1	16%
NAMI National	$10,000	1	0%
Brownpreneurs	$7,500	1	n/a
Aligned	$7,500	1	1%
Jadasa	$7,500	1	4%
Urban League of Metropolitan St Louis	$7,000	1	0%
Mess Pats Daycare	$6,500	1	n/a

Plus 25 recipients with no EIN on record ($3.9M), not named here.

The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 6 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 40 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 40.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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 tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

St Louis Community Foundation IncMO34.6× affinity16 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: St Louis Community Foundation Inc · Commerce Bancshares Foundation · St Louis Community Foundation · United Way of Greater St Louis Inc · Youthbridge Community Foundation · Employees Community Fund of the Boeing Company · Innovative Technology Education Fund · St Louis Philanthropic Organization · William T Kemper Foundation Commerce Bank Trustee · Charter Fund Inc D/B/A Charter School Growth Fund · Trio Foundation of St Louis · Moneta Group Charitable Foundation

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.

Compare The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education with peer funders

About The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education

How much does The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education give?: The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education reported 36 grants totaling $12,889,499 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 8 and 34 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2024.
What does The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education fund?: By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (91%), Environment (4%), Health (2%).
Who are The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2019 to FY2025: Kairos Academies ($3.3M), City Garden Montessori School ($2.7M), Navigate STL Schools ($2.4M).
Does The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 29% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include St Louis Community Foundation Inc, Commerce Bancshares Foundation, St Louis Community Foundation.
Where is The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education based?: The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education is based in MO.