Maryland · Nonprofit
AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC
AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC (Maryland) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $333,590 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($168,167). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $33M
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $334k
- Net assets
- $23M
What American Youth Hostels Inc does
Mission
Our mission is "to help all, especially the young, gain a greater understanding of the world and its people through hostelling." in hostels, experiential learning programs and nationwide signature programs, we bring people together from diverse backgrounds and perspectives facilitating interaction, for dialogue learning and relationship building that intentionally broadens perspective, improves cultural understanding and creates a more tolerant world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Hostel stay: ayh provides a network of 14 hostels nationwide, and in a typical year hosts travelers from more than 80 countries with over 650,000 guest overnight stays annually. The hostel stay creates environment for cultural exchange and understanding and is fundamental to all other programs we offer. Each hostel is purposely designed with spaces and amenities that bring people together and encourage interaction in an inclusive and inviting way. We strategically develop and use spaces to deliver cultural exchange through experiential learning to our traveler guests and community members. As travelers get to know each other, they discover their similarities and differences, challenging stereotypes and social barriers, expand world views, and help to create a more tolerant world.
$27,270,517 spent$30,642,806 earned by the program96% of program spendingGuest learning programs: ayh delivers experiential learning programs and activities in ayh hostels to engage and facilitate the sharing of cultural perspectives among guests, and to connect guests with the local community. Through volunteer facilitation, programs provide guests with opportunities to better understand other cultures, create a sense of space and connection to local community and reflect on their own perspectives and understanding, taking actions consistent with their learnings. Program design is aligned with american association of colleges and universities (aacu) learning value rubrics in the disciplines of intercultural communication, civic engagement and global citizenship. Each year, in addition to the hostel stay program, ayh typically delivers more than 2,000 facilitated learning programs nationwide with over 25,000 participants.
$1,009,851 spent4% of program spendingNationwide signature programs: ayh delivers national scope programs that provide opportunities for people to enhance their intercultural understanding and contribute to a more tolerant world. Travel scholarships give 18 to 30-year old's, with qualified financial need, the opportunity to engage in educational travel within the usa and around the world. Say hi for peace engages hostel guests and community members in activities that celebrate the united nations international day of peace, in partnership with hostels around the world and explore how they can contribute to a peaceful society. The great hostel give back program offers groups of six or more people an opportunity to receive a free night's stay at our hostels during the months of january and february for each day their members volunteer in the surrounding community. Iou respect brings young people together from western and middle eastern countries including the us, germany, france, tunisia, lebanon and egypt annually for a two week hostel based exchange program that includes facilitated intensive dialogue, experiential learning activities, travel and reflection. These and other signature programs promote cross-cultural…
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $28,280,368.
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 2018 to 2019, from $62M to $76M (+21%).
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 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2022 26% · 2023 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
2% of AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (13% 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.
Board chair
Charles Hokanson
Director/chair
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 rose $250 → $10k.
5 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 84% 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 YOUTH HOSTELS INC’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 YOUTH HOSTELS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 50% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
86% 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 YOUTH HOSTELS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 35% · 2019 100% · 2020 80% · 2021 39% · 2022 47% · 2023 70% — 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
29% of AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
84% of AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC'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. Of the $54k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Maryland, across 6 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $280k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 YOUTH HOSTELS INC receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $334k to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 449 housing & shelter nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC
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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 32 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- American Youth Hostels - Chicago Inc · exempt
- Ayh Boston Hostel Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC: 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 YOUTH HOSTELS INC?
- AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC (Maryland) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $333,590 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($168,167). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $333,590 in grants to AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $168,167 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN YOUTH HOSTELS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Youth Hostels →
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 13 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