Virginia · Nonprofit
NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC
NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC (Virginia) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,430,152 to it, the largest being RED GATES FOUNDATION ($5,750,000). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.9M
- Funders on record
- 50
- Grants received
- $8.4M
- Net assets
- $16M
What Northstar Academy Inc does
Mission
At northstar academy, we promote educational excellence and career opportunities for students with disabilities who have academic, physical, or social challenges. Northstar academy empowers students to develop and value their diverse abilities, chart a successful course for their lives, and create their own futures. We cultivate communities where people of all abilities thrive.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Northstar academy serves young people grades k-12 with a wide variety of disabilities. We ensure an educational experience that is both traditional and unconventional, recognizing the unique needs of each student. We serve students with disabilities in 12 of the 13 categories defined by the individuals with disabilities act. Each program uses strategies that appeal to students with a variety of learning styles such as visual, auditory, or tactile. Our flagship programs include discovering abilities through art, lindamood-bell language and math programs, and specialized social skill instruction. During fy25, northstar academy served 103 students.
$3,082,665 spentof which $293,032 as grants$3,128,107 earned by the program78% of program spendingNorthstar career center is a career and technical education program for students with disabilities ages 16-24. At the career academy, we prepare youth with disabilities to be productive citizens. The program includes three components: job skills, specialized workplace social skills called countdown to employment, and productivity. Through both classroom instruction and off-campus worksite experiences with business partners in our community, we are empowering students to develop the self-determination and self-advocacy skills necessary for achieving independent living, employment, and/or post-secondary education. During fy25, the career center assisted 21 students.
$858,437 spentof which $38,785 as grants$825,943 earned by the program22% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,941,102.
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 2021 to 2022, from $6.5M to $15M (+136%).
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 24% · 2022 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
29% of NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Richard L Bennett Jr
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $140k → $4.0M.
7 of 50 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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
NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 77%; 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: 2017 39% · 2018 31% · 2019 25% · 2020 20% · 2021 16% · 2022 60% · 2023 87% — 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
44% of NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
93% of NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC's grant income comes from Virginia funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $433k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC: 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 NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC?
- NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC (Virginia) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,430,152 to it, the largest being RED GATES FOUNDATION ($5,750,000). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC have?
- IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $8,430,152 in grants to NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC?
- RED GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $5,750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NORTHSTAR ACADEMY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 Northstar 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 50 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