Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER
VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,130,725 to it, the largest being RICHARD KING MELLON FOUNDATION ($4,965,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.8M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $36M
What Valley School of Ligonier does
Mission
In an environment that is safe, challenging, nurturing, and disciplined, valley school provides a balanced and strong program of study for a diverse group of children. Our goal is to stimulate in each young person lifelong habits of moral behavior, seeking wisdom, and doing good works for others.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Valley School of Ligonier was founded in 1946 by constance prosser mellon and general richard king mellon. Mrs. Mellon envisioned valley as a nurturing community where a diverse group of students build their academic, artistic, and athletic skills and learn to become responsible and compassionate adults. She felt that children learn best in small classes with skilled teachers who know and care about each child. Hoping children would feel at home in nature, she selected the school's 400-acre wood setting.valley school's primary responsibility is to our children. We present a program centered on the concept of the continuous growth of the whole individual. Because of our school's relatively small size, we can recognize individual needs and different rates of growth and maturation, and opportunities for success can exist for each child. We make a deliberate effort to develop the following habits: the ability to think; the self-discipline to work in a careful, imaginative, and independent manner; a willingness to trust and cooperate positively with others; the ability to risk and to adapt to new situations. We want our children to be honest with themselves and with others. We want…
$8,081,345 spentof which $1,567,254 as grants$4,172,655 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $8,081,345.
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.
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 $32M to $38M (+19%).
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.
36% of VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $27k → $3.1M.
5 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
47% 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 VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 39% · 2019 38% · 2020 43% · 2021 48% · 2022 41% · 2023 39% — broadly stable.
“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
75% of VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
100% of VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $264k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.
Against its field
VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER's funding base is broadening — from 5 funders to 15 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER
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
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
44%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Valley School of Ligonier Endowment Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER: 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER?
- VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,130,725 to it, the largest being RICHARD KING MELLON FOUNDATION ($4,965,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $13,130,725 in grants to VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER?
- RICHARD KING MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,965,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER 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 Valley School of Ligonier →
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 31 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