Arizona · Nonprofit
Desert Star Academy
Desert Star Academy (Arizona) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $43,817 to it, the largest being BHHS Legacy Foundation ($27,500). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.8M
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $44k
- Net assets
- $934k
What Desert Star Academy does
Mission
To allow all scholars to use their strengths to grow emotionally and academically to achieve excellence. Each scholar will learn in a safe, nurtureing environment where self-confidence will be developed and where the scholar is encouraged to take educational risks, accept challenges and learn new concepts.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The school provides educational services in mohave, az to approximately 645 students in kg to 10th grades
$5,961,322 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,961,322.
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 $2.0M to $11M (+436%).
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: 2020 96% · 2021 98% · 2022 95% · 2023 95% · 2024 94% · 2025 93%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Desert Star Academy’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $19 → $3k.
1 of 4 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 Desert Star 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
Desert Star Academy leans on a few funders — its largest provides 63% 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
93% 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 Star Academy.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 99% — 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
63% of Desert Star Academy's grant income comes from Arizona funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $67 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
Desert Star Academy has grown faster 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
Government funding Desert Star Academy receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $205k on record.
- Department of Education$205k
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 Desert Star 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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Desert Star 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 Desert Star Academy?
- Desert Star Academy (Arizona) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $43,817 to it, the largest being BHHS Legacy Foundation ($27,500). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Desert Star Academy have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $43,817 in grants to Desert Star Academy, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Desert Star Academy?
- BHHS Legacy Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $27,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Desert Star Academy find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 Star Academy →
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 4 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