Missouri · Nonprofit
ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Missouri) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,116,654 to it, the largest being THE OPPORTUNITY TRUST D/B/A ZEST EDUCATION ($2,093,518). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.6M
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $4.1M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Atlas Public Schools does
Mission
Atlas Public Schools nurtures a thriving community by educating the whole child through a rigorous academic program enriched with real-world experiences, while prioritizing the support, growth, and sustainability of our dedicated educators.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Atlas Public Schools is an intentionally diverse, year-round public charter school in st. Louis that educates the whole child through a rigorous academic program combined with real-world, place-based learning experiences. Our curriculum integrates the science of reading, bridges mathematics, and hands-on learning connected to the local community to promote deep understanding and engagement. During the 2024-25 school year, atlas served approximately 430 students in grades pre-k through 4, with more than 85 percent qualifying for free or reduced price lunch and about 80 percent identifying as students of color. Through co-taught classrooms, individualized supports, and extended learning opportunities, atlas strives to ensure that all students thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
$7,045,320 spent$137,391 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $7,045,320.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $1.0M to $13M (+1221%).
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 47% · 2022 79% · 2023 80% · 2024 87% · 2025 88%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Chief executive
Colby Heckendorn
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $222k → $1.1M.
1 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS’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
ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 97% · 2021 91% · 2022 47% · 2023 48% — 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
51% of ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS's grant income comes from Missouri funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $136 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
ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $408k on record.
- Department of Education$408k
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 ATLAS 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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Atlas Public Schools Support Company LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ATLAS 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 ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
- ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Missouri) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,116,654 to it, the largest being THE OPPORTUNITY TRUST D/B/A ZEST EDUCATION ($2,093,518). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $4,116,654 in grants to ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
- THE OPPORTUNITY TRUST D/B/A ZEST EDUCATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,093,518 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ATLAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 Atlas 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 6 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