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New Hampshire · Nonprofit

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL (New Hampshire) receives grants from 101 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,760,117 to it, the largest being Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund Inc ($9,450,000). 71 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$30M
Funders on record
101
Grants received
$24M
Net assets
$145M
71/101 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 22%
01What it does

What Holderness School does

Mission

Holderness School fosters equally the resources of the mind, body, and spirit in the creation of a caring community, inspiring all to work for the betterment of humankind and god's creation.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Located in plymouth, new hampshire, Holderness School is a traditional independent co-ed boarding school with an enrollment of 312. Serving grades 9-12, Holderness School provides a challenging college preparatory curriculum and special programs in academics, the arts, the outdoors, student leadership, and athletics including winter sports. Holderness School fosters equally the resources of the mind, body, and spirit in the creation of a caring community, inspiring all to work for the betterment of humankind and god's creation.

    $24,296,964 spentof which $5,297,819 as grants$24,135,028 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $24,296,964.

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 ($22M) Expenses 100 ($20M) Net assets 100 ($83M)2018 Revenue 135 ($30M) Expenses 105 ($22M) Net assets 114 ($95M)2019 Revenue 141 ($31M) Expenses 107 ($22M) Net assets 126 ($105M)2020 Revenue 137 ($30M) Expenses 113 ($23M) Net assets 135 ($112M)2021 Revenue 114 ($25M) Expenses 119 ($24M) Net assets 155 ($128M)2022 Revenue 132 ($29M) Expenses 128 ($26M) Net assets 150 ($125M)2023 Revenue 129 ($28M) Expenses 136 ($28M) Net assets 158 ($131M)2024 Revenue 123 ($27M) Expenses 147 ($30M) Net assets 163 ($136M)2025 Revenue 138 ($30M) Expenses 150 ($31M) Net assets 174 ($145M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (138)Expenses (150)Net assets (174)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 $127M to $145M (+14%).

$97M
$109M
$119M
$127M
$145M
$143M
$152M
$157M
$165M
'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%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

16% of HOLDERNESS SCHOOL’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,254 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.

$1.6M
’17
$8.2M
’18
$9.2M
’19
$6.9M
’20
$673k
’21
$2.9M
’22
$500k
’23
−$2.9M
’24
−$277k
’25
5.0
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

Mark Sturgeon

Executive director of adva

Board chair

John Hayes

Chairman of the board

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed323534333634343838
Joined·+8+3+6+27+1+6+9+5
No longer listed·547243655
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 33 funders to 49 funders, grant income rose $760k → $2.6M.

20 of 101 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 HOLDERNESS SCHOOL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 101 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

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

36% 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 HOLDERNESS SCHOOL.

40%
largest funder
66%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 29% · 2019 29% · 2020 47% · 2021 46% · 2022 60% · 2023 38% — 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

47% of HOLDERNESS SCHOOL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside New Hampshire, across 25 states in all.

ME
VT
NH
ID
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
CO
VA
MD
DE
TN
NC
DC
TX
FL

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL is better cushioned than half of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−1% · below the median
Months of reserve5.0mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Organizations like HOLDERNESS 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 New Hampshire

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

79% of spending goes to programs.

Program 79%Management 12%Fundraising 9%

Governance

28
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

78%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

NH

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for HOLDERNESS 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 HOLDERNESS SCHOOL?
HOLDERNESS SCHOOL (New Hampshire) receives grants from 101 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,760,117 to it, the largest being Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund Inc ($9,450,000). 71 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does HOLDERNESS SCHOOL have?
IRS filings report 101 organizations giving $23,760,117 in grants to HOLDERNESS SCHOOL, 71 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of HOLDERNESS SCHOOL?
Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund Inc is the largest funder on record, with $9,450,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like HOLDERNESS SCHOOL find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Hampshire. 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 Holderness School →

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 101 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing