New York · Nonprofit
CIRCLE ACADEMY
CIRCLE ACADEMY (New York) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $550 to it, the largest being NEW YORK LIFE FOUNDATION ($500). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.7M
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $550
- Net assets
- $2.5M
What Circle Academy does
Mission
Circle Academy is committed to the principles of human diversity and equitable treatment for everyone. We ensure that students and their families consistently feel at ease and valued within our community. Recognizing parents as collaborative partners in their children's
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
For the 2024-2025 school year, Circle Academy served 513 students. The school implemented several practices that helped to maintain instructional coherence by doing the following: 1. Circle Academy placed a high value on establishing a warm and supportive educational setting, one where nurturing love, trust, and respect is paramount for everyone, especially encouraging students to harbor these feelings for their peers, educuators, families and themselves. 2. At Circle Academy, diversity was more than a concept; it was a practice of ensuring equal respect and consideration for all people and conscientious stewardship of the environment. 3. The school as proactive in involving parents, believing firmly in power of their involvement to enrich the educational experiences of their children. 4. Commitment to the professional growth of its staff was evident at Circle Academy, with targeted training in the domains of childhood development amd early childhood educational methodologies. 5. The academy maintained a dedication to the continual professional development of eduators, keeping them abreast of the latest preschool curricular standards and the new york state common core. 6. Circle…
$5,525,695 spent$5,513,243 earned by the program96% of program spending.
$232,802 spent4% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,758,497.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $3.4M to $6.7M (+99%).
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: 2022 9% · 2023 4% · 2024 4% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Kelly A Portnoy
Chairman of
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019, and between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $500 → $16.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 CIRCLE 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
CIRCLE ACADEMY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 91% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 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 CIRCLE ACADEMY's grant income comes from New York funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $50 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.
Organizations like CIRCLE 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CIRCLE 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 CIRCLE ACADEMY?
- CIRCLE ACADEMY (New York) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $550 to it, the largest being NEW YORK LIFE FOUNDATION ($500). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CIRCLE ACADEMY have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $550 in grants to CIRCLE ACADEMY, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CIRCLE ACADEMY?
- NEW YORK LIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CIRCLE ACADEMY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Circle Academy →
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 2 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