Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
21st Century School Fund
21st Century School Fund (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $794,705 to it, the largest being ACHIEVING AMERICA FAMILY FOUNDATION ($225,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $550k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $795k
- Net assets
- $130k
What 21st Century School Fund does
Mission
The 21st Century School Fund 21csf was founded on the premise that communities are responsible for creating healthy, safe, and educationally appropriate learning environments for their children. The mission of 21csf is to build the public will and capacity to improve public school facilities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
21st Century School Fund provides technical assistance to states, districts, and nonprofits for research, data analysis, and writing, as well as communications and other support for public engagement in the areas of education planning for facilities, enrollment, and education improvement. A major aspect of this technical assistance is that the 21st Century School Fund provides technical assistance to the national center on school infrastructure, a u.s. Deptartment of education funded initiative, and to the national council on school facilities, an association for state facilities officials.
$488,282 spent$499,391 earned by the program98% of program spending21st Century School Fund provides communication and engagement in support of equity advocacy for public education infrastructure in the disctrict of columbia
$12,379 spent$38,333 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $500,661.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $259k to $114k (−56%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
1% of 21st Century School Fund’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (62% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income fell $150k → $100k.
1 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of 21st Century School Fund’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
21st Century School Fund leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 83% · 2018 75% · 2019 100% · 2020 92% · 2021 36% · 2022 100% · 2023 75% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
14% of 21st Century School Fund's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
21st Century School Fund draws 80% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $25k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
21st Century School Fund's revenue grew 37% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,175 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like 21st Century School Fund
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for 21st Century School Fund: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds 21st Century School Fund?
- 21st Century School Fund (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $794,705 to it, the largest being ACHIEVING AMERICA FAMILY FOUNDATION ($225,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does 21st Century School Fund have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $794,705 in grants to 21st Century School Fund, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of 21st Century School Fund?
- ACHIEVING AMERICA FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $225,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like 21st Century School Fund find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds 21st Century School →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 10 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing