Headwaters Academy
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 331473602
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2024
- Location
- Aurora, IL, USA
- Phone
- 8152068508
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $134,080
- Expenses
- $100,528
- Assets
- $33,552
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
2 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Dana Merk (Board President)
People named in this filing
- Dana Merk (Board President)
- Kendra Holton (Head of School)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Headwaters is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to providing community-centered, interdisciplinary, and experiential learning opportunities for elementary and middle school students. The organization operates a microschool program that integrates project-based learning, environmental education, and standards-aligned instruction. Through hands-on activities such as garden-based learning and community food production, students develop academic, social, and civic skills. Headwaters serves students and families seeking meaningful, real-world education while contributing to the broader community through service and partnerships focused on sustainability and food access.
What it reported doing in 2025
Microschool Education Program: Headwaters operates a multi-age microschool serving approximately 15 elementary and middle school students. The program provides interdisciplinary, project-based instruction aligned with academic standards, integrating literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies. Students engage in hands-on, experiential learning designed to build critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 75% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filed totals do not add up and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 46
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 75.3%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 25%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.33; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 29.8%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 75.3% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $101K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 2 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 7 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part I part ii net assets crosscheck did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.