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Washington · Nonprofit

THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL

THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL (Washington) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,284,727 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($1,691,585). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$36M
Funders on record
22
Grants received
$5.3M
Net assets
$43M
17/22 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 4%
01What it does

What The Bear Creek School does

Mission

Our mission is to provide a high-quality, christian liberal arts education in a nurturing environment that will enable each student to become the individual that god intends.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Bear Creek School (the school) is a private, nonprofit organization founded to provide a high quality, christian liberal arts education in a nurturing environment for its students. The school currently has 915 students in pre-school, pre-kindergarten and in kindergarten through twelfth grade. The school operates at three locations with pre-school attending at the valley campus, kindergarten through 8th attending at the redmond main campus, and 9th through 12th attending at the redmond upper school campus.

    $25,463,078 spentof which $3,126,624 as grants$29,031,288 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $25,463,078.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($18M) Expenses 100 ($18M) Net assets 100 ($19M)2018 Revenue 105 ($19M) Expenses 105 ($19M) Net assets 106 ($20M)2019 Revenue 111 ($20M) Expenses 110 ($20M) Net assets 104 ($19M)2020 Revenue 122 ($22M) Expenses 118 ($21M) Net assets 102 ($19M)2021 Revenue 135 ($25M) Expenses 124 ($22M) Net assets 125 ($23M)2022 Revenue 151 ($28M) Expenses 130 ($23M) Net assets 156 ($29M)2023 Revenue 154 ($28M) Expenses 142 ($25M) Net assets 177 ($33M)2024 Revenue 162 ($29M) Expenses 152 ($27M) Net assets 195 ($36M)2025 Revenue 196 ($36M) Expenses 166 ($30M) Net assets 230 ($43M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (196)Expenses (166)Net assets (230)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $52M to $66M (+29%).

$50M
$50M
$51M
$52M
$66M
$71M
$75M
$79M
$88M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

17% of THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,254 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$354k
’17
$276k
’18
$621k
’19
$1.2M
’20
$2.5M
’21
$4.4M
’22
$2.7M
’23
$2.3M
’24
$5.9M
’25
9.8
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

Andrea Lairson

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed191716161819181919
Joined·+2+1+2+3+4+3+2+1
No longer listed·42213411
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $191k → $732k.

11 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 98% 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 THE BEAR CREEK 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

THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

98% 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 THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL.

32%
largest funder
78%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 81% · 2018 46% · 2019 39% · 2020 67% · 2021 70% · 2022 53% · 2023 37% — 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

47% of THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 77% 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

98% of THE BEAR CREEK 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 $105k that is directly attributable, 64% of it comes from Washington funders.

WA
NY
OR
CA
NC

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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

Against its field

THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin17% · top quartile
Months of reserve9.8mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)9% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Organizations like THE BEAR CREEK 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 Washington

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

86% of spending goes to programs.

Program 86%Management 10%Fundraising 4%

Governance

11
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE BEAR CREEK 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.

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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 THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL?
THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL (Washington) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,284,727 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($1,691,585). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL have?
IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $5,284,727 in grants to THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL?
DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,691,585 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like THE BEAR CREEK SCHOOL find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Bear Creek School →

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 22 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing