Arizona · Nonprofit
A Stepping Stone Foundation
A Stepping Stone Foundation (Arizona) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,291,267 to it, the largest being THUNDERBIRDS CHARITIES ($320,787). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $388k
- Funders on record
- 32
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $1.0M
What A Stepping Stone Foundation does
Mission
To provide stepping stones for successs through education of children and families who have limited opportunities
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Our flagship program, leaf (literacy elevates arizona families) provided early childhood education and whole family literacy to disadvantged children and their parents, whose absence of english literacy put their children at risk of school failure and reduced life choices. While children attended 64 or more hours per month of tuition-free literacy-based preschool classes, parents spent 32 hours or more per month engaged in hands-on experiences with their children in the classroom, and adult literacy & english classes. We served 40 families (135 unique individuals)in alhambra elementary,issac elementary, and synergy school districts.
$581,537 spent100% of program spendingActively partnered with local high schools to identify and reconnect with former preschool students in order to provide college scholarships (billie gannaway memorial, william o. Smith memorial, and ivey stepping higher) for former preschool students. We awarded 24 scholarships to students for a total of $24,103.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $581,537.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $774k to $1.2M (+61%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 0% · 2021 3% · 2022 10% · 2023 22% · 2024 35%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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.
Chief executive
Gabriel Jimenez
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $74k → $175k.
8 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 A Stepping Stone Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 funders by total. 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
A Stepping Stone Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
69% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund A Stepping Stone Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 76% · 2019 40% · 2020 47% · 2021 72% · 2022 25% · 2023 43% — growing more concentrated.
“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
53% of A Stepping Stone Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
57% of A Stepping Stone Foundation's grant income comes from Arizona funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $394k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 states 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.
Organizations like A Stepping Stone Foundation
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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 A Stepping Stone Foundation: 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 A Stepping Stone Foundation?
- A Stepping Stone Foundation (Arizona) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,291,267 to it, the largest being THUNDERBIRDS CHARITIES ($320,787). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does A Stepping Stone Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $1,291,267 in grants to A Stepping Stone Foundation, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of A Stepping Stone Foundation?
- THUNDERBIRDS CHARITIES is the largest funder on record, with $320,787 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like A Stepping Stone Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 A Stepping Stone →
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 32 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