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Pennsylvania · Nonprofit

STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC

STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,720,355 to it, the largest being HESS FOUNDATION INC ($6,225,000). 44 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2023
$3.2M
Funders on record
71
Grants received
$18M
Net assets
$0
44/71 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 55%
01What it does

What Steppingstone Scholars Inc does

Mission

Steppingstone scholars is an educational social mobility organization. For low income students in the city of philadelphia, there are often no clear pathways to college or the workforce. Since 1999, steppingstone has been working to address this systemic problem by creating not just one pathway, but many.

As stated on its FY2023 Form 990.

Program

  1. Through strategic partnerships and high-impact resourcing, steppingstone offers educationally underserved students long-term, intense academic and enrichment support, which is unmatched in philadelphia. Steppingstone produces engaged citizens ready to enter a dynamic workforce through robust college and career prep support services. In 2022-2023, we served approximately 2,500 students through our academy, pathways and ventures programming.

    $3,118,873 spentof which $100,096 as grants$1,091,208 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2022 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,118,873.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($2.3M) Expenses 100 ($2.2M) Net assets 100 ($4.9M)2019 Revenue 148 ($3.5M) Expenses 112 ($2.5M) Net assets 122 ($6.0M)2021 Revenue 214 ($5.0M) Expenses 185 ($4.1M) Net assets 161 ($7.9M)2022 Revenue 680 ($16M) Expenses 239 ($5.3M) Net assets 362 ($18M)2023 Revenue 137 ($3.2M) Expenses 202 ($4.5M) Net assets 0 ($0)
20182019202120222023
Revenue (137)Expenses (202)Net assets (0)

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 $18M to $0 (−100%).

$4.9M
$6.0M
$8.0M
$18M
$0
20182019202120222023
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2018
2019
2021
2022
2023
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 6% · 2022 2% · 2023 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.

$134k
’18
$987k
’19
$928k
’21
$11M
’22
−$1.3M
’23
2.6
months of
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

Deborah Jr Hirtle

Board chair

As listed on its FY2023 Form 990.

20182019202120222023
Listed2422232723
Joined·+2·+12+1
No longer listed·4·85
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 20 funders to 10 funders, grant income fell $768k → $321k.

10 of 71 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 71 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

STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 35% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

30% 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 STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC.

35%
largest funder
61%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 28% · 2019 29% · 2020 21% · 2021 22% · 2022 57% · 2023 54% — 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 STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

51% of STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.

ME
NH
MT
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
MO
VA
DE
DC
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Pennsylvania out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M 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.

04Its place in the field

Organizations like STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS 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 Pennsylvania

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

70% of spending goes to programs.

Program 70%Management 22%Fundraising 8%

Governance

19
board members
95%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

60%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

PA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS 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.

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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 STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC?
STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,720,355 to it, the largest being HESS FOUNDATION INC ($6,225,000). 44 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC have?
IRS filings report 71 organizations giving $17,720,355 in grants to STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC, 44 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC?
HESS FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $6,225,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like STEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Steppingstone Scholars →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2018–2023), and the filings of 71 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