Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,057,000 to it, the largest being THE CATHERINE B REYNOLDS FOUNDATION INC ($21,750,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $23M
- Net assets
- $2.2M
What American Academy of Achievement does
Mission
To honor extraordinary innovators and visionaries and inspire the next generation of young leaders.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Among the academy's many education initiatives, a principal activity has historically been the coordination and staging of an achievement summit (the "summit") which honors outstanding achievers in business, public service, literature, science, exploration, sports, and the arts, and provides a forum for these individual achievers to interact with outstanding college and graduate students and promising young entrepreneurs brought together from around the world as guests of the academy. During the multi-day summit, these extraordinary young scholars have joined eminent contemporary leaders for meaningful dialogue and a series of symposia and roundtable discussions on issues of the day. The summit has been provided at no cost to the delegates. Additional activities of the academy include bringing leaders from various fields together throughout the year, holding special events to honor academy inductees, as well as promoting the principles of excellence and leadership.
$3,250,588 spent93% of program spendingDuring fiscal years ending july 31, 2025 and 2024, the academy continued to expand its online internet presence via their website, www.achievement.org. The academy's redesigned website, which is compatible with mobile devices, is a virtual museum that features a gallery of achievement with exclusive video interviews of many academy members, a curriculum center for teachers and students, and a library that highlights books that changed the lives of academy members. The website allows the academy to reach millions of students and educators each year with their expansive library of living history presented through multimedia content.another significant activity of the academy is to provide educational content on apple podcasts. This application gives students access to the world's largest digital catalog of free educational content. The academy began providing multimedia content from its digital library in november 2010. During the fiscal year 2016, the academy launched a podcast series in conjunction with apple podcasts entitled "what it takes". The podcast features exclusive interviews with academy members and their personal paths to success highlighting the attributes they…
$238,146 spent7% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,488,734.
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 2019 to 2020, from $6.5M to $4.8M (−26%).
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.
98% of AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 8 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.
Board chair
Wayne Reynolds
President/chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income fell $3.6M → $2.4M.
4 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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 OF ACHIEVEMENT’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
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 94% of grant income and the top three 98%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
98% 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 AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 99% · 2019 100% · 2020 98% · 2021 93% · 2022 78% · 2023 97% — 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
33% of AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $825k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT's revenue grew 26% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT
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.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
19%
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 OF ACHIEVEMENT: 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 OF ACHIEVEMENT?
- AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,057,000 to it, the largest being THE CATHERINE B REYNOLDS FOUNDATION INC ($21,750,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $23,057,000 in grants to AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT?
- THE CATHERINE B REYNOLDS FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $21,750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT 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.
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 11 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