New Jersey · Nonprofit
MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS
MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS (New Jersey) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $160,413 to it, the largest being The Margolies Family Foundation Inc ($50,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $267k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $160k
- Net assets
- $307k
What More Than Bootstraps does
Mission
The mission of More Than Bootstraps (MTB) is to build a community of first-generation, low-income (FGLI) students who empower each other to access and succeed in higher education. Only 9% of FGLI students earn a college degree by age 24. MTB addresses systemic barriers that may prevent underrepresented students from enrolling in and completing college by building on the strengths of our students. High school juniors and seniors are mentored by "near-peer" college students (graduates from their community who are currently enrolled in a range of institutions). In guiding their younger peers as a mentoring cohort, our college student Leaders solidify their own college-going success. Supervision and support for students are also provided by Program Resource Fellows and Social Work Interns.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
MTB employs a near-peer mentoring approach to address the challenges first-generation, low-income students face in accessing and succeeding in higher education. Working with underrepresented students in Passaic and Plainfield, NJ, the organization matches high school students with near-peer mentors - high school graduates from their communities who are currently enrolled in a range of institutions. The college student Leaders meet weekly with their high school mentees and follow a curriculum of activities focused on personal and professional development, college and financial aid awareness, and communication with families. By supporting students from their junior year of high school through their college years with programming, mentoring, and financial support, MTB positively impacts college matriculation and retention rates, promotes economic mobility, and contributes to community revitalization. In academic year 2025-2026, we expanded our program in Passaic, NJ, to support nineteen (19) college student Leaders and thirty-seven (37) high school students (24 juniors and 13 seniors). Two Program Resource Fellows assisted with problem-solving and program retention. MTB signed an MOA…
$112,674 spent$267,469 earned by the program100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $112,674.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2024 to 2025, from $158k to $307k (+94%).
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: 2025 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $3k → $36k.
2 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS’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
MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
33% 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 MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 90% · 2022 45% · 2023 56% — 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
57% of MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS's funders are still giving 1 year 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
MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS draws 57% of its grant income from funders outside New Jersey, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $21k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $116k on record.
- GRANT IN AID$110k
- DEDICATED$6k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS
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 Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS: 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 MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS?
- MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS (New Jersey) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $160,413 to it, the largest being The Margolies Family Foundation Inc ($50,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $160,413 in grants to MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS?
- The Margolies Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $50,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MORE THAN BOOTSTRAPS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. 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 More Than Bootstraps →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 14 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