New Mexico · Nonprofit
DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL
DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL (New Mexico) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $49,264 to it, the largest being SANTA FE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($18,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 68% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $49k
- Net assets
- $592k
What Desert Montessori School does
Mission
The mission of Desert Montessori School (dms) is to provide a personalized, engaging education that inspires a life-long love of learning, fosters meaningful, independent thinking, social responsibility and self- confidence. Utilizing the montessori approach and values, along with proven best-practices, dms shines as an inspiring, respectful, safe and caring community for every student, parent and teacher. Dms is a ececd-licensed, two-star facility. We enroll students beginning at age two (2) and offer enrollment through sixth grade.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Desert montessori integrates the montessori philosophy with research-based educational practices. Our students are active participants in academically rigorous classrooms. We honor individual learning styles while preparing students for future success, aiming to empowerourstudents with agency, creativity and integrity our programis based upon montessori principles and values. Teachers thoughtfully prepare engaging environments and guide children to learn at their own pace to reach their individual potential. We use sequences of progressively more challenging work, which allows children to build independence, leading to a strong sense of joy, agency and accomplishment. The materials and lessons are designed to lead a child from the simple to the complex, from concrete to abstract concepts. Our classrooms cultivate an atmosphere of peace, respect and collaboration throughout our community. Finally, outdoor experiences and opportunities for service instill a love of nature and social responsibility as children begin to question and integrate their purpose and place within the family, school and broader community. We are an award-winning school with between a 5:1 and 8:1…
$879,295 spent$1,041,064 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $879,295.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $316k to $562k (+78%).
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 33% · 2023 14% · 2024 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
0% of DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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 5 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
Terry Martinson
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $20k → $104.
3 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 68% 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 DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL’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
DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
68% 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 DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2019 100% · 2020 60% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
68% of DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL'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 $16k that is directly attributable, 63% of it comes from New Mexico funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $33k 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
DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL
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 Mexico
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL: 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 DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL?
- DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL (New Mexico) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $49,264 to it, the largest being SANTA FE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($18,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 68% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $49,264 in grants to DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL?
- SANTA FE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $18,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DESERT MONTESSORI SCHOOL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Mexico. 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 Desert Montessori School →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 5 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