Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation DossiersMostly funded, not a grantmaker — see who funds it →
Plinth

· Public charity

Washington State Charter Schools Association

Through advocacy and policy, the WASHINGTON STATE CHARTER SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION works to ensure a strong, vibrant, and growing community of charter public schools that deliver excellent educational opportunities to all families, especially those who have been historically underserved.

$5.8M
Granted FY2024still arriving
13
Grants FY2024still arriving
—
States reached
$1.5M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0175% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2024.

Education$31MCivil Rights$1.2MYouth Development$30kOther$11M
02FY2024 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 13 grants below total $5,579,319 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $5,774,480 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $195,161 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $59k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $631k
  • $250k+7 grants · $4.9M
$373,592
Median grant
—
States reached
$6.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
IMPACT PUBLIC SCHOOLS$1,526,034
CATALYST$1,086,890
ROOTED SCHOOL WASHINGTON$639,940
PULLMAN COMMUNITY MONTESSORI$457,625
PINNACLES PREP$407,962
WHATCOM INTERGENERATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL CSP$397,289
RAINIER VALLEY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY$373,592
WA CHARTERS ACTION$200,000
LUMEN PUBLIC SCHOOL$196,161
WHY NOT YOU ACADEMY$180,792
RAINIER PREP$54,000
SUMMIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS$35,222
SPOKANE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY$23,812
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

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

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 99% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%SUMMIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $105k → 7%SENECA FAMILY OF AGENCIES: $10k → 10%EDUCATION REFORM NOW: $100k → 17%CASCADE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $735k → 9%SOAR ACADEMIES: $687k → 9%PINNACLES PREP CHARTER SCHOOL: $257k → 9%CATALYST PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $711k → 10%WHATCOM INTERGENERATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL: $505k → 12%PRIDE PREP SCHOOLS: $796k → 12%INNOVATION SCHOOLS (WILLOW PUBLIC SCHOOL): $803k → 13%PULLMAN COMMUNITY MONTESSORI: $255k → 20%SUMMIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $8k → 7%EDUCATION REFORM NOW: $55k → 17%CASCADE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $210k → 9%SOAR ACADEMIES: $469k → 9%CATALYST PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $200k → 10%WHATCOM INTERGENERATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL: $200k → 12%PRIDE PREP SCHOOLS: $496k → 12%INNOVATION SCHOOLS (WILLOW PUBLIC SCHOOL): $659k → 13%SUMMIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $500 → 7%EDUCATION REFORM NOW: $15k → 17%ASHE PREPARATORY ACADEMY: $242k → 9%INTERGENERATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL: $10k → 12%PRIDE PREP SCHOOLS: $59k → 12%INNOVATION SCHOOLS (WILLOW PUBLIC SCHOOL): $340k → 13%ASHE PREPARATORY ACADEMY: $200k → 9%LUMEN PUBLIC SCHOOL: $635k → 12%INNOVATION SCHOOLS (WILLOW PUBLIC SCHOOL): $168k → 13%TEACH FOR AMERICA: $250k → 9%LUMEN PUBLIC SCHOOL: $200k → 12%IMPACT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $1.5M → 9%SPOKANE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY: $819k → 12%IMPACT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $613k → 9%SPOKANE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY: $481k → 12%LEV FOUNDATION: $500k → 9%SPOKANE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY: $259k → 12%IMPACT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $300k → 9%LEV FOUNDATION: $278k → 9%IMPACT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $300k → 9%LEV FOUNDATION: $220k → 9%RAINIER VALLEY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY: $35k → 9%WA CHARTERS ACTION: $130k → 9%RAINIER PREP: $679k → 9%RAINIER PREP: $315k → 9%RAINIER PREP: $35k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 99% of Washington State Charter Schools Association’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 37% of the giving stays in WA; read by stated purpose it is 1% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

Washington State Charter Schools Associationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$40M · 22 repeat orgs$2.7M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +55% since the first grant, against +2% for the ones you funded once.

22 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2024, 10 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

22
9

Total granted

$40M
$1.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+55%
+2%

Still filing today

82%
89%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.5M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationCivil RightsYouth DevelopmentOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • IP
    Impact Public Schools
    7× · 2017–2023 · $7.6M · revenue ×20
  • CP
    Catalyst Public Schools
    6× · 2019–2024 · $3.9M · revenue +315% · 33% of their budget
  • CP
    Cascade Public Schools Why Not You Academy
    6× · 2019–2024 · $3.4M · revenue +207% · 58% of their budget

Funded once

  • RS
    ROOTED SCHOOL
    one grant, 2023 · $672k · revenue +8%
  • Teach for America Inc
    one grant, 2017 · $250k · revenue -3%
  • BE
    BLACK EDUCATION STRATEGY ROUNDTABLE
    one grant, 2022 · $75k · revenue +14% · 49% of their budget

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

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Puget Sound Community School

Founded in 1994, PSCS is a small, independent middle and high school located in the Chinatown/International District of downtown Seattle. PSCS is committed to co-creating a brave space for community-centered education, critical curriculum,…

—
2
Spruce Street School

Spruce Street School is a nurturing educational community that instills in a broad range of children the social, emotional, and intellectual skills for lifelong participation in a diverse society. We offer kindergarten through fifth grade…

Education
3
Pacific Charter Institute Inc

The mission of PCI is to provide students an individualized educational program based on the academic triad. The teacher parent and student work together to develop a unique program specific to the students needs. Our goal is to equip each…

Education
4
Cascades Academy of Central Oregon

Cascades academy is an engaged, vibrant community that weaves challenging academics with experiential learning to inspire socially responsible individuals ready for a diverse and changing world.

Education
5
Pocatello Community Charter School

Public Education.

Education
6
Falcon Ridge Public Charter School

Public Education.

Education
7
Idaho Science & Technology Charter

Public Education.

Education
8
The Island School

The Island School provides a flexible learning environment where each child is known and celebrated.

Education
9
Pikes Peak School of Expeditionary Learning

Provide education for students in Pre-K through 8th grade, benefitting approximately 415 students.

Education
10
Sheridan Allprep Academy

A public charter school that allows students to complete an accredited teacher-supervised K-12 education and earn a high school diploma that meets Oregon State Graduation requirements.

Education
11
Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science Inc

The purpose of the school is to promote, advance and sponsor charitable and educational activities.

Education
12
Yuba River Charter School

Yuba River Charter School provides K-8 public Waldorf education that nurtures the physical, emotional and intellectual capacities of the child through a developmentally appropriate curriculum. YRCS brings forth the academic, social,…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Summit Public Schools Washington and the most unlike its peers is Parents for Student Success. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 11 years old; the field is 16. You back the younger end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number21%0%<5yr14%39%5–10yr20%39%10–20yr20%17%20–35yr13%4%35–55yr12%0%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value21%0%<5yr14%73%5–10yr20%22%10–20yr20%5%20–35yr13%0%35–55yr12%0%55yr+

The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
3%1/32
the rest of the field
12%
5,825/49,026

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

05the grantee network

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

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 28 of the 32 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

13
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
10
Early backer (in before they grew)
26/28
Grantees still filing
17/28
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Impact Public Schools — $7,589,809 · EducationImpact Public SchoolsCatalyst Public Schools — $3,927,278 · EducationCatalyst Public SchoolsCascade Public Schools Why Not You Academy — $3,423,558 · EducationCascade Public Schools Why Not You AcademySpokane International Academy — $3,262,457 · EducationSpokane International AcademyPINNACLES PREP CHARTER SCHOOL — $2,972,231 · EducationPINNACLES PREP CHARTER SCHOOLINTERGENERATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL — $2,830,360 · EducationINTERGENERATIONAL HIGH SCHOOLInnovation Spokane Schools — $1,475,920 · EducationLumen Public School — $1,441,967 · EducationRAINIER PREP — $1,082,300 · Education+9 more — $2,629,009 · Education+9 morePullman Community Montessori — $2,818,786 · OtherPullman Community MontessoriINNOVATION SCHOOLS — $1,969,500 · OtherINNOVATION SCHOOLSRooted School Washington — $1,573,236 · OtherRooted School WashingtonIMPACT PUBLIC SCHOOLS — $1,526,034 · OtherIMPACT PUBLIC SCHOOLSSOAR ACADEMIES — $1,156,313 · OtherSOAR ACADEMIESLUMEN PUBLIC SCHOOL — $887,051 · OtherLUMEN PUBLIC SCHOOLAshe Preparatory Academy — $442,000 · Other+4 more — $190,000 · OtherLEV Foundation — $1,147,971 · Civil RightsBLACK EDUCATION STRATEGY ROUNDTABLE — $75,000 · Civil RightsSTAND FOR CHILDREN LEADERSHIP CENTER INC — $30,000 · Youth Development
Education$30,634,889Other$10,562,920Civil Rights$1,222,971Youth Development$30,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetImpact Public Schools — $7,589,809 over 7y, 23% of budgetCatalyst Public Schools — $3,927,278 over 6y, 33% of budgetCascade Public Schools Why Not You Academy — $3,423,558 over 6y, 58% of budgetSpokane International Academy — $3,262,457 over 7y, 28% of budgetPINNACLES PREP CHARTER SCHOOL — $2,972,231 over 5y, 79% of budgetINTERGENERATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL — $2,830,360 over 7y, 74% of budgetPullman Community Montessori — $2,818,786 over 5y, 95% of budgetINNOVATION SCHOOLS — $1,969,500 over 4y, 54% of budgetRooted School Washington — $1,573,236 over 4y, 94% of budgetInnovation Spokane Schools — $1,475,920 over 5y, 29% of budgetLumen Public School — $1,441,967 over 4y, 49% of budgetLEV Foundation — $1,147,971 over 5y, 16% of budgetRAINIER PREP — $1,082,300 over 4y, 21% of budgetROOTED SCHOOL — $672,195 over 1y, 23% of budgetWA CHARTERS ACTION — $665,000 over 5y, 93% of budgetAshe Preparatory Academy — $442,000 over 2y, 48% of budgetRAINIER VALLEY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY — $423,592 over 2y, 6.0% of budgetTeach for America Inc — $250,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSUMMIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS — $198,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetSUMMIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS WASHINGTON — $185,222 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetEDUCATION REFORM NOW INC — $170,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetBLACK EDUCATION STRATEGY ROUNDTABLE — $75,000 over 1y, 49% of budgetMoonshot edVentures — $50,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetSTAND FOR CHILDREN LEADERSHIP CENTER INC — $30,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetACE ACADEMY — $15,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetParents for Student Success — $15,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetSENECA FAMILY OF AGENCIES — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

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

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Blueprint Washington …New Schools FundGates FoundationCharter Fund Inc D/B/…Stand for Children Le…Walton Family Foundat…Excellent Schools Was…Seattle FoundationRockefeller Philanthr…Silicon Valley Commun…Gs Donor Advised Phil…Morgan Stanley Global…
Blueprint Washington IncCA30.6× affinity12 shared granteesties to 9 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Blueprint Washington Inc · New Schools Fund · Gates Foundation · Charter Fund Inc D/B/A Charter School Growth Fund · Stand for Children Leadership Center Inc · Walton Family Foundation Inc · Excellent Schools Washington · Seattle Foundation · Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Washington State Charter Schools Association funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    15report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 32 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines