North Carolina · Nonprofit
ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY (North Carolina) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,354 to it, the largest being The Perkins Foundation Inc ($2,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY has grown faster than three-quarters of the 9,072 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,072 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- North Carolina High School Athletic Association Incshared funders
- New Schools for Alabamaportfolio match
- State Charter Schools Foundation of Georgia Incportfolio match
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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.
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: 2019 96% · 2020 98% · 2021 88% · 2022 86% · 2023 78% · 2024 82% · 2025 85%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $166 → $115.
1 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY’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
ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 100%; 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: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $760 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first.
- North Carolina High School Athletic Association Incshared fundersNC · backs 83 organizations that share your funders
- New Schools for Alabamaportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- State Charter Schools Foundation of Georgia Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Charter Fund Inc D/B/A Charter School Growth Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Center for Education Reformportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Whirlpool Collective Impact Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Opportunity 180portfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Project Lead the Way Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- National Institute for Excellence in Teachingportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Every Student Every Community Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- 50can Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- New Schools Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $729k on record.
- Department of Education$729k
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 ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Ascend Leadership Academy Holdings Inc · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY?
- ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY (North Carolina) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,354 to it, the largest being The Perkins Foundation Inc ($2,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $4,354 in grants to ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY?
- The Perkins Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $2,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASCEND LEADERSHIP ACADEMY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 3funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing