California · Nonprofit
BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS
BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,351,504 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($7,000,250). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $117M
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $9.4M
- Net assets
- $107M
What Bright Star Schools does
Mission
At Bright Star Schools, our mission is to provide holistic, inclusive support for all the students to achieve academic excellence and grow their unique talents so that they find joy and fulfillment in higher education, career and life.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Bright Star Schools operated nine public charter schools serving approximately 3,600 students across los angeles county through a tk-12 college-preparatory educational model focused on academic achievement, college readiness, and whole-child development. The organization's schools primarily served historically underserved communities in west adams/south los angeles, koreatown, and the northeast san fernando valley. Bright Star Schools maintained a comprehensive college-going culture designed to prepare students for success in higher education, career pathways, and civic life. Program services included standards-based academic instruction, college counseling, advanced placement coursework, alumni support services, family engagement programming, after-school enrichment, social-emotional support, and community school partnerships. During the reporting period, the organization maintained a student-to-counselor ratio of approximately 130:1, significantly below the california average, to provide individualized college and academic advising. The organization achieved a 95% high school graduation rate, with one high school achieving a 100% graduation rate, and an estimated 88% college…
$69,362,137 spentof which $2,500 as grants$2,056,483 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $69,362,137.
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 $111M to $176M (+59%).
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 96% · 2018 80% · 2019 91% · 2020 85% · 2021 96% · 2022 97% · 2023 88% · 2024 98% · 2025 97%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (14% 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
Ana L Martinez
President/CEO
Board chair
Andrew Murr
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $85k → $7.1M.
8 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 79% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $500k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Bright Star Education Group). These are real filings, and they are not money BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS raised.
From the IRS filings of BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 19 of 20 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
BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 75% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
90% 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 BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 59% · 2018 50% · 2019 43% · 2020 43% · 2021 80% · 2022 40% · 2023 99% — 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
25% of BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
79% of BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $2.0M that is directly attributable, 54% of it comes from funders outside California, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.4M 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
BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 679 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 679 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.2M on record.
- Department of Education$5.2M
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 BRIGHT STAR 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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Bsdg 15226 Plummer LLC · disregarded
- Bright Star Education Group · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BRIGHT STAR 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 BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS?
- BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,351,504 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($7,000,250). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $9,351,504 in grants to BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BRIGHT STAR SCHOOLS?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $7,000,250 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BRIGHT STAR 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 Bright Star 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 20 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