Arizona · Nonprofit
STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC
STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC (Arizona) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,673 to it, the largest being Global Impact ($7,079). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
Against its field
STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC is better cushioned than half of the 9,072 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,072 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Thunderbirds Charitieslocal
- Toshiba America Foundationportfolio match
- Project Lead the Way Incportfolio match
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.
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 86% · 2018 87% · 2019 88% · 2020 91% · 2021 90% · 2022 90% · 2023 91% · 2024 79% · 2025 85%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $7k → $229.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 88% 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 STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC’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
STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 82% 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
88% 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 STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 81% · 2021 54% · 2022 52% · 2023 61% — 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
88% of STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC'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 $1k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Arizona, across 1 state.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8k 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first.
- Thunderbirds CharitieslocalAZ · funds 301 organizations near you
- Toshiba America Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Project Lead the Way Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- 50can Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Black Latinx Asian Charter Collaborativeportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Charter Fund Inc D/B/A Charter School Growth Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Center for Education Reformportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- State Charter Schools Foundation of Georgia Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Asia Societyportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Building Hope Impact Fund Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Whirlpool Collective Impact Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Action for Healthy Kidsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $9k on record.
- Pmts-Local Gov't-Pub Sch Ed$9k
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 STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Jso Leasing · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for STEPPING STONES 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC?
- STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC (Arizona) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,673 to it, the largest being Global Impact ($7,079). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $8,673 in grants to STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC?
- Global Impact is the largest funder on record, with $7,079 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like STEPPING STONES ACADEMY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 3funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing