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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES (Massachusetts) receives grants from 158 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,709,296 to it, the largest being THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($3,474,950). 117 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$10M
Funders on record
158
Grants received
$41M
Net assets
$126M
117/158 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 49%
01What it does

What American Academy of Arts & Sciences does

Mission

Founded in 1780, the american academy of arts and sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people." the academy currently undertakes a broad array of activities in five project categories: science, engineering, and technology; global security and international affairs; education and the development of knowledge; the humanities, arts, and culture; and american institutions, society, and the public good.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Academy projects and studies - drawing from every field of research and professional practice, the academy brings together scholars, artists, policy-makers, business leaders, and other experts to examine the most pressing problems facing our world. Often, the academy's influential studies help pioneer new fields that transcend disciplinary boundaries.

    $5,858,718 spent
    56% of program spending

  2. Project outreach and events - the academy regularly sponsors meetings, lectures, panel discussions, and informal gatherings around the country. Topics are drawn from academy projects as well as the research and writings of academy members.

    $1,839,041 spent$730,686 earned by the program
    18% of program spending

  3. Publications - the academy maintains an active publications program to disseminate new knowledge as well as recommendations from academy research. Our publications influence scholars, policy-makers, and other leaders in higher education, government, the arts, business, public affairs, and philanthropy.

    $1,189,447 spent$16,148 earned by the program
    11% of program spending

  4. Membership elections - activities involved in annual election of new members to the academy

    $553,902 spent
    5% of program spending

  5. Archives - activities related to storing and maintaining academy historical documents

    $341,723 spent
    3% of program spending

  6. Communications - activities related to communication of academy activity to members and public

    $516,505 spent
    5% of program spending

  7. Other program services

    $175,394 spent$184,356 earned by the program
    2% of program spending

The 7 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $10,474,730.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($20M) Expenses 100 ($12M) Net assets 100 ($87M)2018 Revenue 84 ($16M) Expenses 100 ($12M) Net assets 110 ($95M)2019 Revenue 53 ($10M) Expenses 110 ($13M) Net assets 109 ($95M)2020 Revenue 84 ($16M) Expenses 111 ($13M) Net assets 110 ($95M)2021 Revenue 165 ($32M) Expenses 103 ($12M) Net assets 147 ($127M)2022 Revenue 120 ($23M) Expenses 121 ($14M) Net assets 137 ($119M)2023 Revenue 72 ($14M) Expenses 139 ($16M) Net assets 138 ($120M)2024 Revenue 89 ($17M) Expenses 163 ($19M) Net assets 141 ($122M)2025 Revenue 53 ($10M) Expenses 145 ($17M) Net assets 145 ($126M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (53)Expenses (145)Net assets (145)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $98M to $130M (+33%).

$90M
$98M
$98M
$98M
$130M
$123M
$123M
$125M
$128M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

80% of AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 43 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$8.0M
’17
$5.0M
’18
−$2.4M
’19
$3.7M
’20
$20M
’21
$9.5M
’22
−$2.0M
’23
−$1.5M
’24
−$6.4M
’25
7.4
months of
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

Goodwin H Liu

Chair of board

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed232325242424242424
Joined·+2+5+3+4+0+4+3+4
No longer listed·23440434
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 48 funders to 76 funders, grant income rose $2.2M → $6.9M.

Funder
'17
'18
'19
'20
'21
'22
'23
'24*
'25*
'26*
total
funders
48
47
58
68
66
76
76
79
29
1

22 of 158 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $6.5M from 10 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Jack Joseph & Morton Mandel Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES raised.

From the IRS filings of AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 158 funders by total. 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 ARTS & SCIENCES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 9% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left

33% 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 ARTS & SCIENCES.

9%
largest funder
24%
top three
~24
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 18% · 2019 26% · 2020 29% · 2021 20% · 2022 36% · 2023 29% — growing more concentrated.

“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

54% of AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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 ARTS & SCIENCES draws 76% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 22 states in all.

NH
WA
MN
IL
MI
NY
MA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
MO
VA
DE
AZ
NC
DC
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES is better cushioned than half of the 25 social science nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−61% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve7.4mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−8% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 25 social science nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Government funding AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $495k on record.

Federal$495k
grants $495kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Humanities$495k

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES

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 Massachusetts

American Antiquarian Society85%Archaeological Institute of America84%Medieval Academy of America84%American Affairs Foundation Inc83%The Academy at Charlemont Inc82%University of Massachusetts Amherst Alumni Association Inc82%Art Libraries Society of North America82%Law and Society Association81%

Nationally

New York Academy of Sciences89%American Association for the Advancement of Science88%American Astronomical Society87%The American Federation of Arts Inc87%The Academy of Management Inc87%American Academy of Optometry86%National Academy of Social Insurance86%American Academy in Rome86%
05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

62% of spending goes to programs.

Program 62%Management 28%Fundraising 9%

Governance

17
board members
94%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

68%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Part of a family of 3 related entities

  • Forum for the Future of Higher Education · exempt
  • Norton's Woods Inc · corp_trust
  • Permanent Science Fund Tr Udecl · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 ARTS & SCIENCES?
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES (Massachusetts) receives grants from 158 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,709,296 to it, the largest being THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($3,474,950). 117 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES have?
IRS filings report 158 organizations giving $40,709,296 in grants to AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES, 117 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES?
THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,474,950 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 158 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