Texas · Nonprofit
ASCENDING LEADERS
ASCENDING LEADERS (Texas) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $169,531 to it, the largest being ARTEVEL FOUNDATION ($82,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $255k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $170k
- Net assets
- $103k
What Ascending Leaders does
Mission
As champions of christ-centered discipleship, Ascending Leaders equips churches to grow individuals across all stages of their spiritual journey with results that are measurable. By deepening the faith of followers, we help restore the church to its purpose and lasting outcomes are achieved.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Acsending leaders' mission is to equip churches for christ-centered discipleship, measurable results, and eternal outcomes. Ascending Leaders does that primarily through the following activities: 1. Coaching individual churches and churches in groups. 2 . Coaching pastors in groups and individual pastors.
$222,243 spent$12,100 earned by the program100% of program spendingDiscipleship co-lab coaching
$117 earned by the program
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $222,243.
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 2019 to 2020, from $45k to $135k (+202%).
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: 2021 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of ASCENDING LEADERS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Dr Michael Johnson
Exec dir & president
Board chair
Teresa Rossy
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $24k → $30k.
2 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 ASCENDING LEADERS’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
ASCENDING LEADERS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 80%; 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 79% · 2018 100% · 2020 94% · 2021 64% · 2022 64% · 2023 47% — 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.
Where its funders are
ASCENDING LEADERS draws 69% of its grant income from funders outside Texas, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $19k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
ASCENDING LEADERS's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 4 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,334 religion nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like ASCENDING LEADERS
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
57%
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 ASCENDING LEADERS: 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 ASCENDING LEADERS?
- ASCENDING LEADERS (Texas) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $169,531 to it, the largest being ARTEVEL FOUNDATION ($82,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ASCENDING LEADERS have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $169,531 in grants to ASCENDING LEADERS, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASCENDING LEADERS?
- ARTEVEL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $82,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASCENDING LEADERS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 Ascending Leaders →
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 7 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