· Public charity
Air Force Academy Foundation
To be an association and foundation of influence and impact, supporting the academy's enduring mission of developing leaders of character for the nation, and providing a lifetime of service to the long blue line.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $187k
- $250k+4 grants · $2.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $1,164,919 |
| ASSOCIATION OF GRADUATES | $507,034 |
| AIR FORCE ACADEMY ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION | $496,004 |
| ACADEMY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE | $279,114 |
| AIR FORCE ACADEMY REAL ESTATE TRUST | $132,440 |
| FALCON FOUNDATION | $54,932 |
| BOLT BROTHERHOOD | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
7 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- AFAIR FORCE ACADEMY ATHLETIC CORPORATION8× · 2017–2025 · $42M
- USUNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY6× · 2017–2023 · $25M
- AOASSOCIATION OF GRADUATES OF THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY8× · 2017–2025 · $5.5M · revenue -8%
Funded once
- WOWAY OF LIFE AFFINITY GROUP OF THE USAF ACADEMY ASSOCIATIONone grant, 2024 · $11k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
5 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 5 of the 9 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Air Force Academy Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Air Force Academy Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Air Force Academy’s filings →