Illinois · Nonprofit
LAKE FOREST ACADEMY
LAKE FOREST ACADEMY (Illinois) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,245,887 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,123,463). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 67% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $49M
- Funders on record
- 99
- Grants received
- $9.2M
- Net assets
- $93M
What Lake Forest Academy does
Mission
Lake Forest Academy strives to embody in its practices - and to cultivate in its students -excellence of character, scholarship, citizenship, and responsibility.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Lake Forest Academy "lfa" was established in 1857 as the boys' preparatory department of lind university. The girls' preparatory department, ferry hall, was added 1869. In 1925, lfa and ferry hall legally separated from the university to become secondary educational institutions. In 1974, the two schools merged into a co-educational independent school. Today's lfa is home to 445 students from 19 states and 40 countries where 50% are boarders. Lfa operates as a boarding school with 72% of the faculty residing on campus. Lfa's 150-acre campus is on the former estate of j. Ogden armour and now consists of a complementary mix of historical and modern buildings. Lfa's 2019 strategic plan, "midwestern heart. Global mind.", focuses on program service accomplishments: developing global citizens through unique educational experiences within a diverse and caring community. The administration and faculty are focused on working within the four main initiatives - educational experience, multiculturalism, marketing, and financial strength. Since 1857, lfa has stayed true to its core values of educating the innovative minds of the next generation. The institution and its people are poised to…
$28,591,928 spentof which $6,383,800 as grants$30,344,252 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $28,591,928.
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 $120M to $139M (+16%).
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: 2021 7% · 2023 3% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
12% of LAKE FOREST ACADEMY’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. 1 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.
Board chair
Jessica P Douglas
Chair / trustee
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 27 funders to 43 funders, grant income rose $355k → $1.5M.
20 of 99 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 67% 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 LAKE FOREST ACADEMY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 99 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
LAKE FOREST ACADEMY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
67% 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 LAKE FOREST ACADEMY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 61% · 2019 34% · 2020 18% · 2021 21% · 2022 32% · 2023 33% — 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
54% of LAKE FOREST ACADEMY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
67% of LAKE FOREST ACADEMY'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 $3.1M that is directly attributable, 71% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.2M 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.
Against its field
LAKE FOREST ACADEMY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like LAKE FOREST ACADEMY
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% 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 LAKE FOREST ACADEMY: 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 LAKE FOREST ACADEMY?
- LAKE FOREST ACADEMY (Illinois) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,245,887 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,123,463). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 67% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does LAKE FOREST ACADEMY have?
- IRS filings report 99 organizations giving $9,245,887 in grants to LAKE FOREST ACADEMY, 64 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LAKE FOREST ACADEMY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,123,463 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LAKE FOREST ACADEMY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Lake Forest Academy →
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 99 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