The Opportunity Trust
St Louis, MO · EIN 82-1838644. Reported 91 grants totalling $15.6M to 57 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For The Opportunity Trust, by its IRS classification it provides support services within education (NTEE B19).
- How spread out its giving is. 57 distinct organizations, with 11% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 53% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $51,350. Half of what it reported fell between $10,500 and $292,455; the smallest was $5,500 and the largest $732,175. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navigate Stl Schools | Saint Louis, MO | $1,739,654 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Kairos Academies | Saint Louis, MO | $1,388,498 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Atlas Public Schools | Saint Louis, MO | $1,274,248 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| City Garden Montessori School | Saint Louis, MO | $1,217,813 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| St Louis Voices Academy | St Louis, MO | $1,158,694 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Leadership School | Saint Louis, MO | $952,587 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Momentum Academy | St Louis, MO | $946,097 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| KIPP St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | $877,455 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Teach St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | $850,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Bridge 2 Hope | St Louis, MO | $754,210 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Believe Schools | Indianapolis, IN | $704,400 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| The School District of University City | University City, MO | $660,220 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Premier Charter School | St Louis, MO | $550,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Missouri Charter Public School Association | St Louis, MO | $400,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Teach for America | St Louis, MO | $380,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| New Venture Fund | Washington, DC | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Normandy Schools Collaborative | Normandy, MO | $225,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls | St Louis, MO | $150,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| St Louis University | St Louis, MO | $139,074 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Premier Charter School | Saint Louis, MO | $105,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Southside Early Childhood Center | St Louis, MO | $102,700 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| The 74 Million | New York, NY | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| St Louis Community Foundation | St Louis, MO | $91,250 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Beginning Futures 2 | Saint Louis, MO | $86,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| St Louis Black Authors of Children's Literature | Saint Louis, MO | $72,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Counterpublic | St Louis, MO | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Wepower | Saint Louis, MO | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Jnb Consulting | Denver, CO | $36,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Gateway Science Academy of St Louis | St Louis, MO | $34,550 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Camelback Ventures Inc | New Orleans, ID | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| In Purpose Educational Services | St Louis, MO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| North Side Community School | St Louis, MO | $22,200 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| St Louis City League | St Louis, MO | $19,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Show Me the World Project | Saint Louis, MO | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Show Me the World | Lansing, MI | $10,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Healing Songs | Black Jack, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Lift for Life Academy Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Marrow & Stalk LLC | Maryland Heights, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Metro Theater Company | Saint Louis, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| NAMI National | Arlington, VA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Core Collective at St Vincent Home | St Louis, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Youth and Family Center | St Louis, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| St Louis Language Immersion School | St Louis, MO | $8,200 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Aligned | Shawnee Mission, KS | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Brownpreneurs | St Louis, MO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Jadasa | St Louis, MO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Justine Petersen | Saint Louis, MO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Keychain Karnival LLC | St Louis, MO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mena Darre LLC | St Louis, MO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Urban League of Metropolitan St Louis | St Louis, MO | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| A New Generation Childcare | St Louis, MO | $6,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Baden Christian Child Care Center Inc | St Louis, MO | $6,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Playtime Academy Children Development Center | St Louis, MO | $6,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Little Explorers Learning Center LLC | Florissant, MO | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Little Precious Angels Childcare 2 LLC | St Louis, MO | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Little Warriors Academy LLC | Florissant, MO | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Myles Ahead Child Care & Learning Center LLC | St Louis, MO | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
22 of 57 (39%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Premier Charter School
EXISTING SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT - Navigate Stl Schools
REMOVING BARRIERS TO ACCESS - Bridge 2 Hope
PARENT & STUDENT LEADERSHIP - City Garden Montessori
EXISTING SCHOOL EXPANSION - St Louis Teacher Residency
DIVERSE/EFFECTIVE TEACHERS AND LEADERS - The School District of University City
DISTRICT CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 15 of 57 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 29 | $4,573,762 | $105,000 |
| 2022 | 34 | $5,117,675 | $50,000 |
| 2023 | 28 | $5,946,913 | $125,675 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
93% of its giving went to organizations in Missouri. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $51,350 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Missouri.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Opportunity Trust's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 3 returns (tax years 2021-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 27 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 5501 Delmar Blvd Suite A300, St Louis, MO, 63112.
EIN 82-1838644 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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