Virginia · Nonprofit
AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES (Virginia) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $668,919 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($500,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $15M
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $669k
- Net assets
- $22M
What American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages does
Mission
To provide vision, leadership, and support for quality teaching and learning of languages.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Contracts and compliance: the contracts and compliance department held all contracts actfl and aps perform for both the government and other educational institutions. This includes providing testing, training testers, reviewing, and writing test items and working on different industry standards and projects. As of april 1, 2025, the contracts and compliance department was transitioned to the ncla. The ncla department continues to oversee the separate aps contract, which must remain under its own legal entity due to specific contractual requirements.
$5,085,958 spent$7,117,927 earned by the program44% of program spendingProfessional development: many of the pay for service programs actfl offers live here. This includes the annual convention, various workshops both in person and online, certification management, and quality assurance for actfl testers.
$3,490,386 spentof which $34,217 as grants$3,273,277 earned by the program30% of program spendingOutreach and advocacy: this department includes membership and related publications. In addition, this department is also home to the annual teacher of the year award (toy) as well as tracking national and state language related legislature issues as well as teacher recruitment and retention.
$1,811,397 spentof which $11,100 as grants$686,294 earned by the program16% of program spendingResearch and assessments: these departments are responsible for the development of and establishment of validity arguments for all actfl branded tests specifically: opi, opic, aappl, alira, and wpt. In addition, this department manages research stipends awarded for language research priorities and is responsible for producing the scholarly journal foreign language annals (fla).
$1,216,978 spent$504,268 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $11,604,719.
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 2020 to 2021, from $22M to $25M (+13%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 9% · 2022 1% · 2023 3% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
0% of AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $500k → $41k.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES’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 THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 75% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
25% 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 THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 64% — 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.
Where its funders are
AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 2 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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 THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES's revenue grew 26% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 550 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $78.7M on record.
- Department of Defense$73.8M
- General Services Administration$3.8M
- Department of State$1.1M
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 THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- National Center for Language Assessment LLC · disregarded
- Language Connects Foundation · exempt
- Actfl Professional Services LLC · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES: 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 THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES?
- AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES (Virginia) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $668,919 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($500,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $668,919 in grants to AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN COUNCIL ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 3 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