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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC

FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,433,725 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($6,000,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$8.4M
Funders on record
33
Grants received
$18M
Net assets
$20M
16/33 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 63%
01What it does

What Friends of Excel Academy Charter Schools Inc does

Mission

To raise funds and support the functions of and carry out the purposes of excel academy charter school and excel academy rhode island; to engage in activities and perform functions that the schools would otherwise have to perform; to own, lease and maintain the sites at which the schools are located and to otherwise benefit the schools through provision of financial support and services.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. To raise funds and support the functions of excel academy charter school and excel academy rhode island.

    $6,245,671 spentof which $1,511,255 as grants$6,851,267 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $6,245,671.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($2.2M) Expenses 100 ($1.6M) Net assets 100 ($7.4M)2018 Revenue 85 ($1.9M) Expenses 117 ($1.8M) Net assets 101 ($7.4M)2019 Revenue 195 ($4.3M) Expenses 58 ($908k) Net assets 178 ($13M)2020 Revenue 77 ($1.7M) Expenses 104 ($1.6M) Net assets 226 ($17M)2021 Revenue 211 ($4.6M) Expenses 230 ($3.6M) Net assets 227 ($17M)2022 Revenue 362 ($8.0M) Expenses 273 ($4.3M) Net assets 276 ($20M)2023 Revenue 650 ($14M) Expenses 564 ($8.9M) Net assets 290 ($21M)2024 Revenue 369 ($8.1M) Expenses 516 ($8.1M) Net assets 288 ($21M)2025 Revenue 382 ($8.4M) Expenses 564 ($8.9M) Net assets 276 ($20M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (382)Expenses (564)Net assets (276)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $46M to $81M (+77%).

$12M
$12M
$18M
$46M
$81M
$83M
$50M
$49M
$47M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2022 7% · 2023 2% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

11% of FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,352 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$628k
’17
$33k
’18
$3.4M
’19
$65k
’20
$1.0M
’21
$3.7M
’22
$5.4M
’23
−$6k
’24
−$477k
’25
12
months of
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

Owen Stearns

Chief executive officer

Board chair

Seth Reynolds

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed77766581516
Joined·+1+0+0+0+2+4+7+3
No longer listed·10103102
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $727k → $7.5M.

11 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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

FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% 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

91% 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 FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC.

33%
largest funder
59%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 36% · 2019 61% · 2020 26% · 2021 44% · 2022 51% · 2023 80% — 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

48% of FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

61% of FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC'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 $7.1M that is directly attributable, 61% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 6 states.

MA
OR
CA
CO
DE
NC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−6% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve12.4mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)18% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER 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 Massachusetts

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

70% of spending goes to programs.

Program 70%Management 27%Fundraising 3%

Governance

6
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

85%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER 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.

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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 FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC?
FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,433,725 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($6,000,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC have?
IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $18,433,725 in grants to FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC?
NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $6,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FRIENDS OF EXCEL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS INC 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.

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 33 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