Massachusetts · Nonprofit
ELDERHOSTEL INC
ELDERHOSTEL INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $960,391 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($434,090). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $446M
- Funders on record
- 44
- Grants received
- $960k
- Net assets
- $184M
What Elderhostel Inc does
Mission
Elderhostel, Inc., which operates under the name Road Scholar, is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1975 for the purpose of sponsoring, arranging or conducting educational programs primarily for adults age 55 and older. Its mission is to inspire adults to learn, discover and travel. Road Scholar's learning adventures engage expert instructors, provide extraordinary access, and stimulate discourse and friendship among people who value lifelong learning. (Continued on Schedule O)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Road Scholar's unique non ship-based educational programs held outside the United States (ranging in length from one to six weeks or more) provide a stimulating academic experience introducing participants to the arts, history, literature, culture, architecture and natural environment of their locations. They are designed to further cross-cultural understanding by forging direct connections between participants and local residents, experts and lecturers. Community service and multi-generational programs are also offered. Room, board and in most cases airfare are included in the cost. In fiscal year 2025, 46,556 enrollees participated in these programs.
$180,636,519 spentof which $13,593 as grants$254,060,018 earned by the program49% of program spendingRoad Scholar's unique non ship-based educational programs in the United States (ranging in length from four days to three weeks) provide a stimulating academic experience exploring the arts, literature, sciences, history, culture, and environment of the United States. Some programs provide community service and others are designed to be multi-generational, allowing grandchildren, or adult children and their children, to attend. Room and board are included in the cost. In fiscal year 2025, 42,100 enrollees participated in these programs.
$95,803,939 spentof which $179,169 as grants$118,311,523 earned by the program26% of program spendingRoad Scholar's Adventures Afloat programs (ranging in length from one week to four months) are ship-based learning adventures that allow participants to experience the educational wonders of broad regions connected by the world's oceans and waterways. Experts and professors provide stimulating educational programs on board, which are enhanced by field trips to experience the culture of local communities through related land components and lectures. Multi-generational programs are offered, and room and board are included in the cost, as is airfare for most programs. In fiscal year 2025, 8,837 enrollees participated in Adventures Afloat programs.
$33,393,606 spent$46,704,971 earned by the program9% of program spendingRoad Scholar offers programs and lectures online through Zoom that match the educational content of on-site programs. The programs range from 10 to 30 hours over three to five days, while lectures, some of which are offered at no cost, run one to two hours, including opportunities to ask questions. In fiscal year 2025, 1,242 enrollees participated in multi-day online programs and 81,883 enrollees attended online paid and free lectures.
$312,188 spentof which $2,394 as grants$740,725 earned by the program0% of program spendingNearly 17 million publications, including 15 million catalogs and brochures were produced and mailed to over 1.5 million households on Road Scholar's mailing list. Road Scholar's website, which provides program information, had 57.8 million page views from over 7.5 million unique visitors. In FY25, Road Scholar appeared on media sites and in publications and articles that receive more than 19.5 billion unique visitors monthly.
$30,055,347 spent$195,624 earned by the program8% of program spendingOver 175 workers in the United States and internationally collaborated with over 1,500 providers and vendors to develop, operate, oversee, and evaluate 4,679 departure dates of 696 unique programs, and 191 virtual programs and lectures.
$16,622,945 spent$186,655 earned by the program4% of program spendingOur 110-seat Participant Services Center handled over 285,000 inbound telephone calls and made approximately 34,000 outbound telephone calls to inquirers and enrollees that resulted in over 76,000 enrollment, cancellation, transfer and contribution transactions. They also responded to over 76,000 emails. In addition, the 56-seat Travel Services Center handled over 62,000 inbound telephone calls and made over 26,000 outbound calls to enrollees who desired assistance in making, changing or cancelling their travel flight arrangements to Road Scholar programs. This team also responded to over 6,000 emails and booked over 129,000 flight segments for enrolled participants.
$14,305,669 spent$464,635 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 7 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $371,130,213.
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 2019 to 2020, from $217M to $130M (−40%).
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 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 10% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
1% of ELDERHOSTEL INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (5% for the typical peer).
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
James Moses
President & CEO
Board chair
Ralph Fuccillo
Chair & Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $34k → $110k.
11 of 44 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 94% 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 ELDERHOSTEL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 44 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
ELDERHOSTEL INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
96% 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 ELDERHOSTEL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 66% · 2019 48% · 2020 55% · 2021 58% · 2022 37% · 2023 46% — 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
38% of ELDERHOSTEL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
94% of ELDERHOSTEL 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 $60k that is directly attributable, 98% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 19 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $901k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
ELDERHOSTEL INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 12 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12 recreation & sports nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding ELDERHOSTEL INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $864 on record.
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $864
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 ELDERHOSTEL 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 39 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ELDERHOSTEL 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 ELDERHOSTEL INC?
- ELDERHOSTEL INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $960,391 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($434,090). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ELDERHOSTEL INC have?
- IRS filings report 44 organizations giving $960,391 in grants to ELDERHOSTEL INC, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ELDERHOSTEL INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $434,090 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ELDERHOSTEL INC 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.
Play a game about who funds Elderhostel →
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 44 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