Louisiana · Nonprofit
FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC
FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC (Louisiana) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,811,003 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($7,221,100). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $57M
- Funders on record
- 48
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $40M
What Firstline Schools Inc does
Mission
Firstline's mission is to create and inspire great open admissions public schools in new orleans with a vision that our schools will prepare students for college, fulfilling careers, and a healthy life by nurturing students in mind, body, and spirit.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Firstline schools, inc. (firstline) is a nonprofit organization formed in 1998 to serve as the chartering group for arthur ashe charter school (ashe) formerly known as new orleans charter middle school (nocms). Firstline was also granted charters by the louisiana board of elementary and secondary education (ldoe) and the orleans parish school board (opsb) to operate samuel j. Green charter school (green) beginning in the 2005-2006 school year, phillis wheatley community school (wheatley) beginning in the 2010-2011 school year, and langston hughes academy (hughes) beginning in the 2012-2013 school year.in the 2024-2025 school year, green, ashe, wheatley, and hughes served the following number of students, as updated (continued on schedule o) for the february 1st, 2025 student count:green - 518 studentsashe - 790 studentswheatley - 791 studentshughes - 792 students
$54,024,338 spentof which $8,165,934 as grants$1,551,567 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $54,024,338.
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 2019 to 2020, from $6.9M to $16M (+128%).
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: 2017 21% · 2018 21% · 2019 22% · 2020 22% · 2021 25% · 2022 36% · 2024 98% · 2025 94%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (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.
Board chair
Malana Mitchell
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 15 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $7.9M.
9 of 48 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 48 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
FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
92% 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 FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 69% · 2019 78% · 2020 39% · 2021 69% · 2022 58% · 2023 89% — 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.
How long its funders stay
35% of FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
73% of FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC's grant income comes from Louisiana funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC is better cushioned than half 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 FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC
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 Louisiana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Friends of Firstline · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC: 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 FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC?
- FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC (Louisiana) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,811,003 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($7,221,100). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC have?
- IRS filings report 48 organizations giving $17,811,003 in grants to FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $7,221,100 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Louisiana. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 48 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