Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION
AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $147,000 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($147,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $55k
- Funders on record
- 1
- Grants received
- $147k
- Net assets
- $125k
What American Academy for Liberal Education does
Mission
To promote excellence in liberal education by providing significant academic recognition of programs and schools worldwide that maintain the highest standards of liberal arts learning.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Accreditation Education: To establish standards for liberal arts higher education by reviewing standards for undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, reviewing standards for general education or core curriculum by accrediting programs based on its standards and by reviewing other academic requirements that the Academy may be called upon to assess in the course of its operations. K-12 Public Charter Schools: To establish nation-wide voluntary standards for public charter schools with strong academic emphasis, reviewing applications by means of self-studies, site visit reports, school responses and accreditation actions by (granting, deferring or denying) by the Board of Trustees.
$50,199 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $50,199.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2019 to 2020, from $59k to $134k (+125%).
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.
33% of AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (65% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 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.
Chief executive
Mary Ann Powers
Exec Director, Board Member-non-voting
Board chair
Rene Paddags
Board Member - Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2022: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $6k → $28k.
1 of 1 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION’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.
Where its funders are
100% of AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION'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. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $147k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION's revenue fell 34% between 2019 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,277 education nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION: 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 AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION?
- AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $147,000 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($147,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION have?
- IRS filings report 1 organization giving $147,000 in grants to AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $147,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 American Academy for Liberal Education →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 1 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