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.

The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education

The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education at a glance Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· 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 FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$1.5M

Largest

01What it funds

01100% 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

02FY2025 · 36 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k6 grants · $40k
$10k–50k7 grants · $131k
$50k–250k8 grants · $1.2M
$250k+15 grants · $11M

$157,000

Median grant

States reached

$4.0M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
BELIEVE SCHOOLS	$1,488,050
GATEWAY SCIENCE ACADEMY OF ST LOUIS	$1,307,077
KAIROS ACADEMIES	$1,265,207
THE LEADERSHIP SCHOOL	$991,848
ST LOUIS VOICES ACADEMY	$842,131
ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS	$819,270
FRIENDLY ACADEMY	$746,607
THE FOUNDATION FOR BARNES JEWISH HOSPITAL	$740,000
PREMIER CHARTER SCHOOL	$714,750
BRIDGE 2 HOPE	$650,000
MOMENTUM ACADEMY	$497,200
BROOKSIDE CHARTER SCHOOL	$376,187
THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF UNIVERSITY CITY	$353,850
MISSOURI CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOL ASSOCIATION	$350,000
CITY GARDEN MONTESSORI	$273,610

02The need

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:

Its human-services grants (FY21–25, $257k) land where the poverty rate runs at 21%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 98% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$32M · 33 repeat orgs$2.5M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +57% since the first grant, against +53% for those funded once.

33 repeat relationships: 23 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 13 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$32M

$435k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+57%

+53%

Still filing today

76%

39%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.1M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationHealthHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementArts & CultureRecreation & SportsOther

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

KA
KAIROS ACADEMIES
7× · 2019–2025 · $3.3M · revenue ×31 · 28% of their budget
CG
CITY GARDEN MONTESSORI SCHOOL
7× · 2019–2025 · $2.7M · revenue +173%
NS
Navigate STL Schools
5× · 2021–2025 · $2.4M · revenue +182% · 100% of their budget

Funded once

FT
FORWARD THROUGH FERGUSON
one grant, 2020 · $81k · revenue -25%
C
COUNTERPUBLICgraduated
one grant, 2023 · $50k · revenue +109%
ES
EDHUB STL
one grant, 2021 · $50k

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.

Thomas Jefferson School

Thomas jefferson school engages its students in the education necessary to live as responsible citizens of the world. through the strongest possible college-prepatory program and within a nurturing community, students develop a…

—

City Academy Inc

See schedule o.city academy transforms children, families and our community through exceptional education and bold expectations that empower children to overcome barriers.

Education

La Salle Charter Schools Inc

La salle middle school is a public charter school located in st. louis. la salle is committed to transforming children and our community through innovative education. students at la salle are pushed to achieve excellence academically,…

Education

Siue Charter School

The mission of the siue east st. louis charter high school is to prepare sudents, who are career - and college - ready, upon graduation.

Education

St Louis Voices Academy of Media Arts

The mission of st. louis voices academy of media arts is to leverage media arts and storytelling to equip students with the agency to excel academically, author their own futures, and make meaningful contributions in their communities.

Education

Hope Leadership Academy

To provide a world-class neighborhood school whose students excel in a culture of academic rigor, character development, and caring relationships.

Education

Louisville Collegiate School

Louisville collegiate school inspires academic excellence, extraordinary character and global citizenship.

Education

Level Up Academy

By tapping the intrinsic motivation and curiosity of every child, we deliver higher than usual growth.

Education

Washington Leadership Academy Public Charter School

Wla combines best practices in teaching and learning, with the latest in educational technology to create an unparalleled high school experience. students will graduate from wla prepared for college, career, and lives of public leadership.

Education

Grace Christian Academy St Louis

The mission of Grace Christian Academy is to first serve families and children by giving them a Biblically-based education centered on a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, imparting a Christian world view and emphasizing Godly…

Education

The Biome School

The biome is a new kind of k-5 school, for the next generation. one that offers customized, project-based and student-centered learning opportunities with an emphasis on a growth mindset and steam (science, technology, engineering, art and…

Education

City View Charter School

City view is a public charter school following the philosophies and practices of expeditionary learning.

Education

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Friendly Academy; the most unlike its peers is LitShop. 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

45 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. 45 of the 76 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

44/45

Grantees still filing

26/45

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Education$24,525,487Other$8,832,335Environment$1,598,874Health$777,500Community Improvement$325,000Human Services$257,200Housing & Shelter$132,500

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

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 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

16report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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.

Play a game based on Opportunity Trust D/B/A Zest Education’s 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