Colorado · Nonprofit
SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL
SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL (Colorado) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $103,630 to it, the largest being CHAFFEE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($67,630). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $293k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $104k
- Net assets
- $214k
What Shining Mountains Montessori School does
Mission
Create an educational organization to provide an authentic montessori approach to education. Will serve as a unifying model for childhood education in buena vista, colorado.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The business and purpose of smms is to provide an authentic montessori approach to education. Smms will serve as a unifying model for childhood education in buena vista, colorado. Smms will aim to provide safe, nurturing, peaceful and exploratory environments designed for the developmental needs and successes that challenge and support students enabling students to be independent and self-empowered. Smms's goal is to foster children who connect to their natural environment, are curious lifelong learners, who respect themselves, their environment, others and their community.
$210,622 spent$192,276 earned by the program100% of program spendingThe business and purpose of smms is to provide an authentic montessori approach to education. Smms will serve as a unifying model for childhood education in buena vista, colorado. Smms will aim to provide safe, nurturing, peaceful and exploratory environments designed for the developmental needs and successes that challenge and support students enabling students to be independent and self-empowered. Smms's goal is to foster children who connect to their natural environment, are curious lifelong learners, who respect themselves, their environment, others and their community.
$885 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $211,507.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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.
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: 2023 22% · 2025 29%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
34% of SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 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
Ashley Kappel
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $11k → $39k.
1 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 65% 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 SHINING MOUNTAINS 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
SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 65% 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
90% 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 SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 100% · 2023 67% — 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.
Where its funders are
65% of SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $36k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Colorado funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $68k 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
SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL is better cushioned than half of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like SHINING MOUNTAINS 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 Colorado
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SHINING MOUNTAINS 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 SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL?
- SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL (Colorado) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $103,630 to it, the largest being CHAFFEE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($67,630). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $103,630 in grants to SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL?
- CHAFFEE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $67,630 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SHINING MOUNTAINS MONTESSORI SCHOOL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Colorado. 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 Shining Mountains 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 2023–2025), and the filings of 3 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