Ohio · Nonprofit
PROJECT GRAD AKRON
PROJECT GRAD AKRON (Ohio) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $431,115 to it, the largest being GAR FOUNDATION ($227,550). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $431k
- Net assets
- $509k
What Project Grad Akron does
Mission
In collaboration with community partners, Project Grad Akron will provide a system of programs, supports, and scholarships for underrepresented students to achieve success from pre-kindergarten through career.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Secondary and post-secondary programming: Project Grad Akron's college and career central programming provides college and career readiness and access services for 6th through 12th grade students in selected schools of the akron public schools. Once students have successfully graduated from high school, support programs and services are provided for the students to persist and successfully graduate from college. College and career central (3c) is our comprehensive readiness program that prepares students for life after high school graduation through a systematic approach which supports students to make informed choices about their future. The program provides students with the information, knowledge, resources, and skills to be ready for life after high school graduation whether the plan is to enroll in college, enlist in the military, or move directly to employment. The program model is designed to prepare all students grades 6th through 12th with college and career readiness services incorporating interconnected key concepts utilizing evidence based practices. Juniors and seniors participate in traditional and team mentoring through grad mentors!. Grads persist provides…
$711,473 spentof which $31,750 as grants88% of program spendingPrimary programming: students begin their relationship with Project Grad Akron through the bridge to kindergarten (b2k) program which serves students and families in the akron public schools transitioning into kindergarten from home or preschool. B2k is a comprehensive and holistic approach to meeting the needs of students and parents with the transition to kindergarten marking the start of the child's formal education. Program components include summer and school year academic achievement programming and services, family case management services, including preparation for promotion and success in first grade, for students and parents. The curriculum design, founded on best practices and evidenced based research, focuses on the development of skills in the areas of literacy, math, social, physical, and motor development. In addition, we provide wrap-around services to encourage parents to become actively engaged in their child's education. The program begins with an intensive summer academy, providing skill building for students, engagement activities for parents, and continued support services for the families through the school year with continued support services during the…
$97,019 spent12% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $808,492.
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 2022 to 2023, from $586k to $749k (+28%).
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 67% · 2018 54% · 2019 43% · 2020 26% · 2021 40% · 2022 65% · 2023 74% · 2024 70% · 2025 68%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of PROJECT GRAD AKRON’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (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
Jacqueline A Silas-Butler Esq
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income fell $67k → $38k.
2 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.1M from 4 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest United Way of Summit and Medina). These are real filings, and they are not money PROJECT GRAD AKRON raised.
From the IRS filings of PROJECT GRAD AKRON’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 14 of 15 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
PROJECT GRAD AKRON leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 74%; 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: 2018 90% · 2019 92% · 2020 50% · 2021 67% · 2022 68% · 2023 52% — 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
14% of PROJECT GRAD AKRON's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% 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
PROJECT GRAD AKRON draws 62% of its grant income from funders outside Ohio, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $291 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
PROJECT GRAD AKRON is better cushioned than half 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 PROJECT GRAD AKRON
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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PROJECT GRAD AKRON: 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 PROJECT GRAD AKRON?
- PROJECT GRAD AKRON (Ohio) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $431,115 to it, the largest being GAR FOUNDATION ($227,550). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PROJECT GRAD AKRON have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $431,115 in grants to PROJECT GRAD AKRON, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PROJECT GRAD AKRON?
- GAR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $227,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PROJECT GRAD AKRON find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Project Grad Akron →
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 15 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