Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS
COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,741,755 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($4,940,686). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $11M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $8.7M
- Net assets
- $19M
What Council of the Great City Schools does
Mission
See schedule o, page 45.founded in 1956 and incorporated in 1961, the purpose of the Council of the Great City Schools (the council) is to represent the needs, challenges, and successes of major-city public school districts and their students before the american people, their elected officials, and the press; to promote the improvement of public education in these districts through advocacy, research, communications, conferences, technical assistance, and other activities that may also benefit other schools, school districts and students across the country.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Meetings and conferences -the council held nine in-person conferences and meetings in fy24-25. The two largest conferences were the annual fall conference and the spring legislative/policy conference. The annual fall conference was held on october 16-20, 2024, in dallas, tx and was attended by some 1,000 big-city public school superintendents, school board members, senior administrators, and deans of colleges of education.continued on page 45hosted by the dallas independent school district, the five-day conference was held in dallas under the banner "leading innovation and transformation." in a town hall meeting moderated by chuck todd, nbc's chief political analyst, ten students from urban schools across the country discussed pressing issues such as reproductive rights, the economy, immigration, growing racial and ethnic diversity, and gun violence. As a keynote speaker, mr. Todd said the biggest problem in the nation's information ecosystem is the decline of local news coverage an the tendency to nationalize local issues, which leads to polarization.in her keynote address, bestselling author isabel wilkerson highlighted her own background as a graduate of the district of…
$2,941,006 spentof which $51,450 as grants$1,269,288 earned by the program36% of program spendingGeneral membership services this is the combined organizational services of the Council of the Great City Schools, including legislation, communications, research, academic achievement, task forces, and management services. In each of these areas, the council conducted over 1,000 regular zoom calls to connect member district staff to peers and support during the year.continued on page 46legislation--the council helps shape legislation to strengthen the quality of schooling for the nation's urban children by providing information to federal agencies and to the membership on federal activity. In 2024-25, the council-- - successfully lobbied against federal education funding cuts in fiscal year 2025, withstanding threats that included strict budget spending caps and a house appropriations proposal to cut title I by 25% and eliminate funding for teacher effectiveness and english learner programs. - advocated for the immediate release of over $6 billion in federal education funding that the white house and u.s. Department of education withheld from states and school districts prior to the start of the 2025-26 school year. - provided detailed briefings to cgcs school boards,…
$2,195,646 spent$1,089,225 earned by the program27% of program spendingCategorical grants the council received two new categorical grants in fy24-25: one from the hewlett foundation to support districts through providing hands-on professional development and implementation guidance for effective use of high-quality instructional materials (hqim) (acct 44); and another from the wallace foundation to support the foundation's equity-centered pipeline initiative (ecpi) with the eight participating council districts (acct 62).continued on page 52the organization also operated: 1) the second year of the gates foundation grant (acct 26) called instructional resources adoption & procurement support to support school district selection of high quality instructional resources; 2) the fourth and final year of the council chief state school officers (ccsso) to support the coalition to advance future student success by serving as principal partner to execute strategy and dissemination work that directly supports the success of the students and school districts (acct 83); and, 3) the final year of the contract with the university of california at irvine to participate in a longitudinal study of student achievement based on professional development on the teaching…
$1,718,333 spent$852,438 earned by the program21% of program spendingStrategic support teams, other special projects - conducted strategic support team reviews for the anchorage school district (procurement), aurora public schools (academic), boston public schools (hr), broward county school district (procurement), columbus city schools (it), duval county public schools (hr), fresno unified school district (special ed), hawaii department of education (organizational/hr), houston (ai), los angeles unified school district (cfo support), memphis-shelby county (academic), miami-dade county school district (transportation), milwaukee public schools (hr), minneapolis public schools (special ed), orange county public schools (facilities), portland public schools (hr), puerto rico department of education (special ed), sacramento unified school district (hr), hillsborough county public schools (special ed), and washoe county school district (special ed).- conducted in-person governance training sessions in albuquerque, atlanta, aurora, austin, bridgeport, buffalo, charlotte-mecklenburg, cleveland, columbus, des moines, fresno, jefferson county ky, long beach, las vegas, memphis, oklahoma city, philadelphia, pittsburgh, portland, providence, rochester,…
$1,293,972 spent$1,969,998 earned by the program16% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,148,957.
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.
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 $12M to $16M (+27%).
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: 2022 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Raymond Hart
Executive director
Board chair
Marcia Andrews
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $625k → $1.4M.
3 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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: $69k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Silicon Valley Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS raised.
From the IRS filings of COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS’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
COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 57% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 96% · 2018 100% · 2019 94% · 2020 42% · 2021 63% · 2022 56% · 2023 97% — broadly stable.
“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
38% of COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS'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
COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $101k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.
Government funding COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $580k on record.
- Department of Education$580k
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 COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS
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
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
46%
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 COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS: 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 COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS?
- COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,741,755 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($4,940,686). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $8,741,755 in grants to COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS?
- GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,940,686 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS 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.
Play a game about who funds Council of the Great City Schools →
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