South Carolina · Nonprofit
LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL
LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL (South Carolina) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,628 to it, the largest being FIRST FEDERAL FOUNDATION INC ($10,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.3M
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $11k
- Net assets
- $-683085
What Lowcountry Montessori School does
Mission
The mission of Lowcountry Montessori School is to provide an authentic montessori education building a foundation for lifelong learning.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
See schedule oLowcountry Montessori School implements an authentic montessori environment for primary through high school. We use multi-aged classrooms, montessori trained guides, classrooms stocked with montessori materials, to meet children where they are in the curriculum. If a child is in need for remediation or advanced lessons, the curriculum is set up to meet the child where they are.Lowcountry Montessori School believes in following the child. If children have a carefully prepared environment, with purposeful materials and a trained guide, they often are interested in the environment and intrinsically motivated to learn. Lowcountry Montessori School's curriculum also has a peace curriculum or conflict resolution component. This is something that is done at all levels. Because of this curriculum, we see students begin to resolve conflict at an early age.Lowcountry Montessori School's secondary program curriculum has a fine art focus with an emphasis on environmental sciences and practical life skills. Students are taught culinary skills, metal working, textiles, photography, drawing, music, dance as well as other related arts. We also offer classes skills such as…
$4,437,350 spent$628,131 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,437,350.
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 $7.1M to $11M (+48%).
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 92% · 2018 90% · 2019 92% · 2020 94% · 2021 98% · 2022 95% · 2023 94% · 2024 93% · 2025 88%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Sarah Fox
Exec director
Board chair
Greg Alexander
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $54 → $10k.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL’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
LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 94% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 98% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside South Carolina, across 1 state in all.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $628 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 2 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI 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 South Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI 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.
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 LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL?
- LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL (South Carolina) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,628 to it, the largest being FIRST FEDERAL FOUNDATION INC ($10,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $10,628 in grants to LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL?
- FIRST FEDERAL FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $10,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LOWCOUNTRY MONTESSORI SCHOOL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Carolina. 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 Lowcountry Montessori 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 2 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