Vermont · Nonprofit
VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL
VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL (Vermont) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,547,682 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($603,653). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.7M
- Funders on record
- 24
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $4.6M
What Vermont Commons School does
Mission
Scholarship. Community. Global responsibility.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Vermont Commons School (the school) is a nonprofit, private school incorporated in 1996 in south burlington, vermont dedicated to "scholarship, community and global responsibility." the school gives students in grades 6 through 12 the opportunity to "experience a unique blend of academics and global immersion, master fundamental academic disciplines, grasp the profound interdependence of the natural and human systems they inhabit, and graduate with values, knowledge, skills, and commitment necessary to become ethical and engaged ecological citizens."
$2,932,268 spentof which $638,759 as grants$3,100,358 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,932,268.
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 2021 to 2022, from $4.9M to $6.9M (+42%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2021 11% · 2022 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
12% of VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL’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. 0 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 6 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $32k → $252k.
7 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 78% 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 VERMONT COMMONS 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
VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
82% 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 VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 43% · 2019 57% · 2020 52% · 2021 47% · 2022 78% · 2023 23% — 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
55% of VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
78% of VERMONT COMMONS 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 $343k that is directly attributable, 81% of it comes from funders outside Vermont, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M 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.
Against its field
VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL is better cushioned than half of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $267k on record.
- Participant Support Costs$187k
- Hardware-Desktop & Laptop PCs$79k
- Other Purchased Services$721
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like VERMONT COMMONS 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 Vermont
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VERMONT COMMONS 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.
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 VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL?
- VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL (Vermont) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,547,682 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($603,653). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL have?
- IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $1,547,682 in grants to VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL?
- AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $603,653 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 Vermont Commons 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 24 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