Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL
DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,963,527 to it, the largest being CLARK CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC DBA A JAMES & ALICE B CLARK FOUNDATION ($1,800,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $24M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $6.0M
- Net assets
- $4.5M
What Digital Pioneers Academy Public Charter School does
Mission
The mission of digital pioneers academy (dpa) is to develop the next generation of innovators. We prepare students to meet or exceed the highest academic standards, while cultivating the strength of character necessary to both graduate from four-year colleges and thrive in 21st century careers.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Effective july 1, 2018, digital pioneers academy (dpa) entered into a fifteen-year charter school agreement with the district of columbia public charter school board (pcsb). In 2022-2023, dpa underwent its five-year charter review with the pcsb. Dpa is a college preparatory middle and high school that served 682 6th to 12th graders, predominantly students from ward 7 and 8 in washington, dc, in the 2024-25 school year. Having added one grade per year since its founding, dpa reached scale in 2024-25 and the first class of students graduated in june 2025. Dpa provides a unique, personalized educational experience that integrates best practices from schools across the country, preparing students to be innovators and active citizens in our technology- driven world. Dpa's learning model leverages a curriculum built around traditional subjects with the critical inclusion of computer science as a core content area. Through core classes and personalized, project-based work, students will develop computational thinking skills, a set of capabilities that can be flexibly applied to succeed in a four-year college and in a variety of fields. In addition to rigorous academics, dpa's innovative…
$19,982,148 spent$20,747,594 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $19,982,148.
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 2022 to 2023, from $5.0M to $15M (+211%).
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: 2018 21% · 2019 20% · 2020 9% · 2021 15% · 2022 21% · 2023 19% · 2024 15% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
12% of DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
Mashea Ashton
CEO/principa
Board chair
Mary Wells
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $580k → $900k.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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 DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER 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
DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
64% 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 DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 36% · 2019 41% · 2020 46% · 2021 40% · 2022 39% · 2023 28% — 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
63% of DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $266k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,758 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% 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 DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER 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 DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL?
- DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,963,527 to it, the largest being CLARK CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC DBA A JAMES & ALICE B CLARK FOUNDATION ($1,800,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $5,963,527 in grants to DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL?
- CLARK CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC DBA A JAMES & ALICE B CLARK FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,800,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DIGITAL PIONEERS ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Digital Pioneers Academy Public Charter School →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 16 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