Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION
AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,772,150 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($6,438,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $34M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $23M
- Net assets
- $71M
What American Council on Education does
Mission
Ace leads higher education with a united vision for the future, galvanizing our members to make change. The council collaborates across the sector to design solutions for today's challenges, serves the needs of a diverse student population, shapes effective public policy, and promotes a more inclusive future.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Adult learning and educational credentialsthe American Council on Education (ace) administers a national program that evaluates, validates, and documents college-level learning gained through military training, occupational experience, employer-based instruction, and other nontraditional learning environments. Through faculty-led review processes, ace develops academically sound credit recommendations and benchmarks industry competencies that assist learners in applying verified learning toward accredited postsecondary credentials. The program maintains publicly accessible resources that help learners, institutions, and employers understand documented learning outcomes and make informed decisions about the applicability of prior learning.ace also advances research, cross-sector partnerships, and technical initiatives aimed at improving institutional recognition of learning, credential transparency, and the interoperability of education and workforce systems. These activities supported state systems, higher education institutions, federal agencies, and employers in implementing policies and practices that expand learner mobility and strengthen alignment between education and…
$7,503,862 spent$6,900,445 earned by the program29% of program spendingCarnegie classificationfor the last 50 years, the carnegie classifications of institutions of higher education have been the gold standard for organizing colleges and universities by a variety of characteristics, and they are used by researchers around the world to study the higher education sector in america. Ace began a collaboration with the carnegie foundation in february 2022 to redesign the carnegie classifications so they better reflect the diverse set of institutions and missions in higher education today and to establish new classifications, including ones that are centered on students' social and economic mobility. In fy25, ace continued engagement with a large, diverse set of stakeholders, ultimately reaching more than 15,000 people in total since the project began, including 600 unique institutions. Ace released the revised 2025 research activity designations in february 2025 and the full 2025 carnegie classifications in april 2025, including the new student access and earnings classification, and the releases were amplified by more than 300 news stories and institutional press releases. By the end of fy25, the carnegie classifications website had more than 900,000…
$4,737,476 spent$19,300 earned by the program18% of program spendingGovernment relations & public affairsace's division of government relations and national engagement (grne) coordinates the efforts of the higher education community in representing its concerns to the federal government. Staff members, engage with federal policy makers on proposed federal legislation and regulations, prepare testimony for congressional hearings and file amicus curiae briefs on court cases with important implications for higher education, and create shared advocacy materials among other activities. For federal government policy makers, the division acts as the central source of information and counsel on issues important to the higher education community. Division staff members also communicate information on relevant federal and state educational concerns and ace policy positions to the media, college and university officials, and the general public. Another means of dissemination of this information is the ace annual meeting, which is an ideal setting for networking with colleagues and addressing future challenges of higher education, including in the public policy arena.the office of public affairs works to maintain the council's presence as a top source for…
$4,647,113 spent$13,000 earned by the program18% of program spendingProfessional development programsace connect serves as ace's central hub for community strategy and engagement, building partnerships and fostering collaboration across the higher education ecosystem. Through signature networks, strategic convenings, and digital engagement tools, ace connect creates spaces for leaders to share expertise, strengthen relationships, and advance solutions to the sector's most pressing challenges.as the unit responsible for ace's major convenings, ace connect leads the planning and execution of the ace experience, ace's flagship event series with its annual meeting as the featured centerpiece of engagement. The ace experience convenes nearly 700 higher education leaders for dialogue on critical issues shaping the future of the sector and, beyond the annual meeting, features components such as ace on the hill, the university network summit as a partner conference, the ace women's network leadership conference, and the council of fellows gathering. All these combine to elevate the ace experience as a catalyst for collaboration, advocacy, and innovation.ace connect also manages three cornerstone communities: -the ace council of fellows (cof), representing…
$3,705,079 spentof which $24,150 as grants$485,378 earned by the program14% of program spendingAnnual meeting and other programs: ace's annual meeting brings together higher education leaders from all sectors. The annual meeting is an event to network with colleagues, hear about emerging trends from national thought leaders, and learn about new approaches to campus challenges.
$3,354,874 spent$11,123,877 earned by the program13% of program spendingPolicy analysis and researchthe research unit is responsible for creating, aggregating, and disseminating knowledge, insights, and data that help the council and sector it represents measure and articulate their respective impact. The unit serves these functions through conducting research that establishes benchmarks and measures collective impact of the postsecondary sector; and through providing timely analysis of public policy issues. The unit is also tasked to conduct summative and formative assessment of the council's activities that will inform its strategic priorities and catalyze ongoing organizational improvement and impact.
$2,016,302 spent8% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $25,964,706.
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 2022 to 2023, from $76M to $88M (+16%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 10% · 2018 9% · 2019 8% · 2020 1% · 2021 8% · 2022 5% · 2023 0% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
18% of AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Mushtaq Gunja
Exec. Dir., ccs
Board chair
Felix V Matos Rodriguez
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $1.2M → $6.7M.
2 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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: $3.2M from 6 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Silicon Valley Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION raised.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN COUNCIL ON 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.
How concentrated its funding is
AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
30% 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 COUNCIL ON EDUCATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 82% · 2019 65% · 2020 53% · 2021 43% · 2022 39% · 2023 74% — 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 COUNCIL ON EDUCATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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 COUNCIL ON EDUCATION draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $36k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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 COUNCIL ON EDUCATION's funding base is broadening — from 5 funders to 10 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $55.4M on record — $55.1M federal, $364k state.
- Department of Defense$49.0M
- Department of Homeland Security$2.3M
- Department of Education$2.2M
- Department of State$1.1M
- Department of Transportation$186k
- Department of the Treasury$97k
- OK$242k
- NJ$109k
- VT$12k
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 COUNCIL ON 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.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
62%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN COUNCIL ON 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 COUNCIL ON EDUCATION?
- AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,772,150 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($6,438,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $22,772,150 in grants to AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,438,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN COUNCIL ON 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.
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 26 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