Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $876,278 to it, the largest being THEODORE R AND VIVIAN M JOHNSON SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION INC ($150,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $910k
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $876k
- Net assets
- $988k
What Bender Leadership Academy does
Mission
Bender Leadership Academy's mission is to increase long-term competitive employment for youth with disabilities. Bender Leadership Academy is founded on a commitment to serving the disability community, with a focus on the value and abilities each person can contribute to the workforce. We do this by educating program participants with key competencies that will improve their chance for success in the workplace and in adulthood. This education is supplemented with messaging focused on empowering our youth to raise the bar and speak up; to not be limited or silenced by the perceptions and stigma that act as barriers to success. We have realized amazing impact with our program participants; these students become beacons of positivity for their peers and harbingers of a more hopeful and inclusive society.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The Bender Leadership Academy delivers competency-building programs that enable students with disabilities to engage in educational, empowerment and work opportunities, celebrate successes, and set and achieve career journey goals. Bender Leadership Academy's goal is to increase long-term competitive employment for youth with disabilities. There are 7 main program titles: (1) work readiness training, which focuses on foundational skills assessment, dressing for success, resume building and practice interviews, presentation public speaking skills, virtual workplace tours, and utilizes employer partners for practice interview experiences, (2) student leaders training, which focuses on leadership, initiative, anti-bullying, resume building and interview skills, presentation public speaking skills, networking and employer connections, virtual workplace tours, and utilizes speakers from employer partners to reinforce concepts, (3) certifcations (icdl international computing drivers license and nrf customer service), which focus on self-paced online modules, the seven microsoft suite basic functionality certifications, virtual proctoring and assessment, soft skills, with instructor…
$487,889 spentof which $15,000 as grants$244,360 earned by the program92% of program spendingThe Bender Leadership Academy conducts the mary brougher mental health initiative, which works to help individuals build a mental fitness routine and become mental health advocates. The initiative provides mental fitness training in the following ways (1) to become empowered to talk about mental health, (2) to engage in healthy mind habits that build skills in self-compassion, coping, and resiliency, (3) to learn to identify and understand emotions and what they tell us, and (4) to explore where thoughts come from and how to process them in a healthy way. The initiative also teaches individuals about mental health advocacy in the following ways: (1) to understand what it means to be an advocate, (2) to learn about current civil rights issues for people with mental health disabilities, (3) to hear presentations from community partners about mental health advocacy, and (4) to explore actions that youth advocates can take to bring about change that addresses stigma of mental health. The initiative launched the #notashamed campaign to reduce stigma around mental health disabilities, to empower youth with mental health disabilities to take pride in who they are, to create a community…
$40,352 spent8% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $528,241.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2023 to 2024, from $718k to $988k (+38%).
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.
69% of BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (54% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 7 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $5k → $237k.
3 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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 BENDER 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
BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 55% · 2022 59% · 2023 32% — 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.
How long its funders stay
33% of BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 55% 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
58% of BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $63k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,276 employment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,276 employment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
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 Pennsylvania
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
43%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BENDER 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY?
- BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $876,278 to it, the largest being THEODORE R AND VIVIAN M JOHNSON SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION INC ($150,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $876,278 in grants to BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY?
- THEODORE R AND VIVIAN M JOHNSON SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $150,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Bender Leadership Academy →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing