California · Nonprofit
ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,300,453 to it, the largest being Association For Continuing Education ($2,720,111). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $42M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $5.3M
- Net assets
- $24M
What Alpha Public Schools does
Mission
To empower great teachers and inspire active learning. To change the educational and economic trajectory of our students' lives and transform their surrounding communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Alpha Public Schools was founded in 2010 by a group of parents in east san jose, ca who wanted better education options for their children. Alpha's network of four high-performing charter schools provides a high quality k-12 education for families in east san jose-and focuses, following the schools' namesakes, on preparing students to be community leaders. Alpha's model emphasizes high-quality teaching through an academic program focused on differentiation, a college-going culture, and leadership development. During fy 2024-2025 the school served approximately 1,735 students.
$32,203,749 spent$468,568 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $32,203,749.
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 2022 to 2023, from $21M to $30M (+44%).
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: 2017 93% · 2018 96% · 2019 96% · 2020 97% · 2021 96% · 2022 98% · 2023 98% · 2024 96% · 2025 94%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Shara Hegde
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Peter Macdonald
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 6 funders, grant income fell $601k → $386k.
8 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 19 of 22 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
ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
96% 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 ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 81% · 2019 57% · 2020 44% · 2021 45% · 2022 50% · 2023 79% — 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
23% of ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS'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
100% of ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $270k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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.
Against its field
ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.7M on record.
- Department of Education$3.7M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Alpha Facilities LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 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 ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
- ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,300,453 to it, the largest being Association For Continuing Education ($2,720,111). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $5,300,453 in grants to ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
- Association For Continuing Education is the largest funder on record, with $2,720,111 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ALPHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Alpha Public Schools →
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 22 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing