Virginia · Nonprofit
Richmond Waldorf School
Richmond Waldorf School (Virginia) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $278,801 to it, the largest being THE MARY MORTON PARSONS FOUNDATION ($100,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.0M
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $279k
- Net assets
- $2.4M
What Richmond Waldorf School does
Mission
Our approach to a holistic Waldorf education lays the foundation for a life full of meaning and purpose. (See 4a)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Established in 1996, Richmond Waldorf School is a Pre-K through 8th grade independent Waldorf School located on a 2.8 acre urban campus in Richmond, VA. We serve 192 students through a developmentally- appropriate curriculum that honors each student for who they are and seeks to develop their whole person - intellectually, socially, emotionally, and physically. RWS emphasizes hands-on learning with an artistic and practical approach to academic subjects. Waldorf students develop meaningful skills in a way that inspires confidence, builds practical skills, and cultivates creativity. RWS Faculty and Administration are dedicated to growing Waldorf education and share the common goal of raising a new generation of students to care for each other, themselves, and the world around them. Waldorf class teaching is demanding and enormously rewarding work. Our educators model what it means to be a whole human and the pedagogy reinforces strong and meaningful relationships. One notable aspect of our grades program is that the Waldorf teacher remains with their class for multiple years - often from first through eighth grade. This paradigm centers healthy child development by showing students…
$2,809,980 spentof which $403,789 as grants$3,854,219 earned by the program95% of program spendingAn investment in high quality supplies is integral to delivering a Waldorf curriculum. Our students use natural beeswax crayons, colored pencils, and watercolors for their main lesson books and artwork. In handwork classes, students knit and crochet with hand dyed wool roving and yarn. Using only hand tools, children in the woodworking program concentrate on honing their skills to make practical, beautiful objects. Developing endurance is the cornerstone of our bike program, where every child learns to master life on two wheels. Because we believe that every human is musical, we strengthen children's musicality through songs, dances and games and then build up literacy teaching various wind instruments, culminating in formal string instrument instruction. In the Early Childhood program, teachers work with handmade and natural toys and fabrics, including wooden figurines, handmade dolls, and playsilks. All these tactile, sensory supplies speak to our mission to connect the head, heart, and hands of our students, delivering a balanced, holistic, and fully integrated curriculum.
$92,211 spent3% of program spendingToday's child needs connection with the natural world more than ever. Field trips enliven the curriculum for the students by expanding their sensory experiences with the content they are studying in the classroom. From multi-day overnight trips to locally curated day destinations, the school invests heavily in these experiences to support the deepening of the students' knowledge and understanding of the world around them. A few of the multi-day rites of passage at RWS include a third grade trip to live and work at a biodynamic organic farm, fifth grade camping trip to a Virginia bee sanctuary, and a sixth grade caving excursion. To bring academics to life, RWS partners with other independent schools on Pentathalon and Medieval games. For the younger children who are not quite ready to leave the nest overnight, RWS has long established relationships with local farms, orchards and specialty museums.
$45,199 spent2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,947,390.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
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 $3.7M to $4.4M (+20%).
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 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 5 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
Marianne Kelliher
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $9k → $315.
4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% 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 Richmond Waldorf 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
Richmond Waldorf School leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
41% 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 Richmond Waldorf School.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 67% · 2020 75% · 2021 91% · 2022 92% · 2023 100% — 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
100% of Richmond Waldorf School's grant income comes from Virginia funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $114k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.
Organizations like Richmond Waldorf 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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Richmond Waldorf 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 Richmond Waldorf School?
- Richmond Waldorf School (Virginia) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $278,801 to it, the largest being THE MARY MORTON PARSONS FOUNDATION ($100,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Richmond Waldorf School have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $278,801 in grants to Richmond Waldorf School, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Richmond Waldorf School?
- THE MARY MORTON PARSONS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $100,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Richmond Waldorf School 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 Richmond Waldorf School →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 7 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