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Pennsylvania · Nonprofit

THE ELLIS SCHOOL

THE ELLIS SCHOOL (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,685,662 to it, the largest being EQT FOUNDATION ($1,350,000). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$16M
Funders on record
50
Grants received
$5.7M
Net assets
$47M
34/50 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 7%
01What it does

What The Ellis School does

Mission

An independent college preparatory school for girls from age three through twelfth grade.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Ellis School is pittsburgh's only age 3 to grade 12 independent school dedicated to the education of girls, making ellis a unique regional resource. Ellis is committed to preparing, empowering, and inspiring each and every girl through an excellent education in an all-girls environment. The ellis experience is both nurturing and academically challenging; ellis girls are free to know themselves, discover their gifts, and find their own voices, all of which maximize girls' intellectual, physical, emotional, and social growth. At ellis, girls of all ages learn to take academic risks, work collaboratively, ask questions, and pursue their dreams. With a total enrollment of 404 students, the average classroom size is 12-14 students. Of our 61 faculty members, 67 percent hold master's degrees and 1 member hold phds. With an overall student-to-teacher ratio of 6:1, students across all divisions benefit from an intimate learning environment and individual attention. The student body represents 61 zip codes and 27 school districts, with 53.4 percent of students receiving need-based financial aid awards and scholarships. One hundred years of ellis educational excellence has resulted in…

    $15,783,957 spentof which $4,449,482 as grants$12,640,069 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $15,783,957.

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 ($13M) Expenses 100 ($13M) Net assets 100 ($35M)2018 Revenue 109 ($14M) Expenses 99 ($13M) Net assets 108 ($37M)2019 Revenue 92 ($12M) Expenses 98 ($13M) Net assets 111 ($38M)2020 Revenue 108 ($14M) Expenses 95 ($12M) Net assets 117 ($41M)2021 Revenue 105 ($14M) Expenses 104 ($13M) Net assets 140 ($48M)2022 Revenue 116 ($15M) Expenses 106 ($14M) Net assets 128 ($44M)2023 Revenue 100 ($13M) Expenses 118 ($15M) Net assets 130 ($45M)2024 Revenue 113 ($15M) Expenses 122 ($16M) Net assets 136 ($47M)2025 Revenue 123 ($16M) Expenses 138 ($18M) Net assets 136 ($47M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (123)Expenses (138)Net assets (136)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 $48M to $55M (+14%).

$42M
$44M
$45M
$48M
$55M
$51M
$52M
$54M
$54M
'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

Government-grant reliance: 2017 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 8% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

7% of THE ELLIS SCHOOL’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (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. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$313k
’17
$1.6M
’18
−$454k
’19
$2.0M
’20
$498k
’21
$1.6M
’22
−$2.0M
’23
−$797k
’24
−$1.6M
’25
1.9
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

Joseph Schmid

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed282523242423212424
Joined·+9+6+7+2+6+5+4+14
No longer listed·1286277114
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 26 funders, grant income fell $522k → $488k.

14 of 50 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 ELLIS SCHOOL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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

THE ELLIS SCHOOL has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left

34% 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 ELLIS SCHOOL.

24%
largest funder
41%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 86% · 2018 76% · 2019 61% · 2020 33% · 2021 26% · 2022 21% · 2023 21% — 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

45% of THE ELLIS SCHOOL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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 ELLIS SCHOOL's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.

IL
NY
MA
IN
OH
PA
CT
RI
CA
DE
NC
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. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 ELLIS SCHOOL's revenue grew 23% between 2017 and 2025.

Operating margin−10% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve1.9mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · bottom quartile

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

Organizations like THE ELLIS 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 Pennsylvania

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

88% of spending goes to programs.

Program 88%Management 8%Fundraising 3%

Governance

18
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention–Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

64%

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 THE ELLIS 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 ELLIS SCHOOL?
THE ELLIS SCHOOL (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,685,662 to it, the largest being EQT FOUNDATION ($1,350,000). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does THE ELLIS SCHOOL have?
IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $5,685,662 in grants to THE ELLIS SCHOOL, 34 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of THE ELLIS SCHOOL?
EQT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,350,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like THE ELLIS SCHOOL 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 Ellis 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 50 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