Minnesota · Nonprofit
LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY
LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY (Minnesota) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $277,605 to it, the largest being PAUL AND SUZANNE HANIFL FOUNDATION ($200,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $22M
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $278k
- Net assets
- $-1923993
What Lakes International Language Academy does
Mission
To prepare tomorrow's critical thinkers and global citizens through language acquisition and inquiry-driven study. To deliver a high caliber education from a global perspective that combines second-language acquisition with a proven inquiry-based learning approach, enhancing individual achievement, and building community connections.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
K-12 public school with for-fee preschool. The school has completed its 21st year of operation. It began as a k-6 school and expanded to grades 7-8 in 2015 and grades 9-12 in 2016. The school serves students at three buildings on two campuses. Kinder center serves prek and k; lower school serves grades 1-5; upper school houses grades 6-12. K-12 student enrollment totaled 1293 students in fy25. The international baccalaureate organization authorized lila as an ib world school for all grades. Authorization occurs after a three-year candidacy for each level: primary years programme for grades prek to 5, middle years programme for grades 6-10, and diploma programme for grades 11-12. Authorization only results when a school has built and implemented its ib programme curriculum framework to exacting standards. The school offers mandarin chinese immersion and spanish immersion tracks to grade 5. Upper school students have language acquisition as a focus, but the curriculum is not full immersion. Instead, it is meant for new language learners as well as for immersion students matriculating from lower school or other immersion schools. Lila graduates typically earn the state bilingual seal…
$16,784,531 spent$1,892,952 earned by the program85% of program spendingCommunity service program, kinder prep preschool. A fee-based preschool for ages 3-5, kinder prep preschool does not receive state pupil funding. Kinder prep preschool opened in fall 2013. Its curriculum reflects the ib whole-child philosophy and has a rich language component, with teachers speaking chinese, spanish, and english to all participants. About 115 students were enrolled during the 2024-2025 school year. Licensed bilingual teachers partner with classroom aides to deliver academic and social-emotional education, preparing students for kindergarten and beyond. In the 2024-25 school year, kinder prep piloted a tuition waiver program for low income students who were unable to receive state prek aid due to child's age or due to a change in economic circumstance after the state aid application window closed. The school benefits from the increased prek intake when the child(ren) matriculate to kindergarten. It also allows families with a state-paid prek child to have both their pre-k aged children attend kinder prep.
$616,103 spent$53,810 earned by the program3% of program spendingCommunity service program: explorer club school age care. Lila's explorer club school age childcare program is a for-fee program that served approximately 200 students throughout the fiscal year. The program employees enhance students' exposure to spanish and chinese language as they conduct their program in spanish, chinese, and english. It is qualified as a four star parent aware program, the highest rating. The program is located at kinder center and lower school buildings and serves grades prek to 5.
$1,280,326 spent$126,404 earned by the program6% of program spendingNutrition services fund. Lakes International Language Academy contracted with a new food services partner and is now handling revenues and expenses of the program through the school. The program offers grades prek to 12 breakfast and lunch daily. Students enjoy from-scratch cooking that meets state and federal requirements for schools.
$1,027,018 spent$105,394 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $19,707,978.
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 $13M to $12M (−8%).
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 89% · 2018 88% · 2019 89% · 2020 86% · 2021 29% · 2022 32% · 2023 87% · 2024 88% · 2025 87%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than 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.
Chief executive
Shannon Peterson
Executive director
Board chair
Renee Feagan
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $3k → $127k.
3 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 72% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
25% 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 LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 78% · 2021 85% · 2022 85% · 2023 79% — 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
20% of LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY draws 84% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $30k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY has grown faster 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 LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE 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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Lila Building Company · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE 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 LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY?
- LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY (Minnesota) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $277,605 to it, the largest being PAUL AND SUZANNE HANIFL FOUNDATION ($200,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $277,605 in grants to LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY?
- PAUL AND SUZANNE HANIFL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LAKES INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ACADEMY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Lakes International Language 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 12 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