Massachusetts · Nonprofit
EDUCATION PIONEERS
EDUCATION PIONEERS (Massachusetts) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,070,080 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($3,953,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.4M
- Funders on record
- 77
- Grants received
- $21M
- Net assets
- $3.1M
What Education Pioneers does
Mission
Education Pioneers attracts, develops, and mobilizes a diverse network of high potential leaders who bring the capacity to address an evolving set of challenges to make education a lever for opportunity and excellence.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Education Pioneers summer fellowship attracts and develops talented graduate students and emerging professionals pursuing non-instructional careers in education, providing the opportunity to lead critical short term projects in school districts, charter schools, government education agencies or non profits over a 10 week period.the Education Pioneers impact fellowship attracts and develops early to mid career talent with demonstrated data and analytics, project management, operation and / or strategy skills to complete a 10-month placement leading long-term, systems level projects in school districts, charter schools, government education agencies or non profit organizations.
$3,081,271 spent$1,064,251 earned by the program85% of program spendingEducation Pioneers alumni services program helps advance our alumni as leaders in the field of education. Alumni engagement is an investment in the potential of the Education Pioneers network. Our 4,800 fellowship alumni who continue to work in service of students, schools, and their respective communities are Education Pioneers' biggest driver of long-term impact. Strengthening and supporting our alumni network is the mechanism by which we amplify, accelerate, and expand our collective impact. Going forward, Education Pioneers' strategy related to alumni services includes learning how to better engage and activate this network to enable stronger connection, collaboration, and problem-solving across the sector. A strong network serves as a more valuable resource for our alumni, and enables pursuit of network impact.
$544,193 spent15% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,625,464.
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 2023 to 2024, from $2.6M to $6.6M (+149%).
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 1% · 2019 3% · 2020 16% · 2021 7% · 2022 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
53% of EDUCATION PIONEERS’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. 5 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
Melissa Wu
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Matt Lyons
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $1.7M → $2.2M.
22 of 77 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 EDUCATION PIONEERS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 77 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
EDUCATION PIONEERS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
39% 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 EDUCATION PIONEERS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 68% · 2018 37% · 2019 26% · 2020 44% · 2021 25% · 2022 27% · 2023 27% — 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
30% of EDUCATION PIONEERS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
EDUCATION PIONEERS draws 97% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 21 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
EDUCATION PIONEERS is better cushioned 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 EDUCATION PIONEERS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $21k on record.
- NJ$14k
- MA$7k
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 EDUCATION PIONEERS
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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
58%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 12 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EDUCATION PIONEERS: 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 EDUCATION PIONEERS?
- EDUCATION PIONEERS (Massachusetts) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,070,080 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($3,953,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EDUCATION PIONEERS have?
- IRS filings report 77 organizations giving $21,070,080 in grants to EDUCATION PIONEERS, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EDUCATION PIONEERS?
- GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,953,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EDUCATION PIONEERS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Education Pioneers →
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 77 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