Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
Story of Our Schools
Story of Our Schools (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $161,291 to it, the largest being The Policy Academies Inc ($46,500). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Story of Our Schools's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 7 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 15,926 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, 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.
- The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundationshared funderslocal
- 4point0 Schoolsportfolio match
- Maryland Humanities Council Incportfolio match
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $5k → $53k.
5 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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 Story of Our Schools’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
Story of Our Schools leans on a few funders — its largest provides 29% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
76% 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 Story of Our Schools.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 96% · 2021 96% · 2022 57% · 2023 47% — 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
0% of Story of Our Schools's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 60% 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
98% of Story of Our Schools's grant income comes from Washington, D.C. funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $76k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 statesis 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. Your 10 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundationshared funderslocalDC · backs 96 organizations that share your funders · funds 372 organizations near you
- 4point0 Schoolsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Maryland Humanities Council Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- American Historical Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Maryland Historical Society Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Baltimore Heritage Area Association Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- William M Cage Library Trustportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Humanities Tennesseeportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- North Carolina Humanities Councilportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United Statesportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Camelback Venturesportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Corina Higginson Trust Co Laura Ford Trusteeshared fundersMD · backs 23 organizations that share your funders
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.
Organizations like Story of Our Schools
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
60%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Story of Our Schools: 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 Story of Our Schools?
- Story of Our Schools (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $161,291 to it, the largest being The Policy Academies Inc ($46,500). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Story of Our Schools have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $161,291 in grants to Story of Our Schools, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Story of Our Schools?
- The Policy Academies Inc is the largest funder on record, with $46,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Story of Our Schools find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 2025–2025), and the filings of 10funders 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