Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
PRESIDENTS FORUM
PRESIDENTS FORUM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,060,000 to it, the largest being Ascendium Education Solutions Inc ($500,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $348k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $-73375
What Presidents Forum does
Mission
The Presidents Forum is a mission-driven organization with a clear vision guided by three core tenets: learner impact, systemic change, and measurable difference. The Presidents Forum seeks to engage its members in collaborative change projects that can benefit the students served by the member institutions.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Seamless solution project: an enabling vendor, kenetic west, was selected and engaged. This team has helped the Presidents Forum establish an employer table to inform the work we do around short-term credentials at scale.advancing adult learners: the Presidents Forum publicly advocated for the unique needs of adult learners through webinars, speaking engagements, op-eds, and newsletters to a broad audience of higher education innovators, as well as meeting with key industry and government leaders.
$435,718 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $435,718.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2021 to 2022, from $547k to $112k (−79%).
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: 2021 57%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of PRESIDENTS FORUM’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 6 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
Wesley Smith
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $250k → $340k.
From the IRS filings of PRESIDENTS FORUM’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
PRESIDENTS FORUM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 92%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
59% 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 PRESIDENTS FORUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 71% · 2022 69% · 2023 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
PRESIDENTS FORUM 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. 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
PRESIDENTS FORUM's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding PRESIDENTS FORUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $105k on record.
- Membership Dues$105k
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 PRESIDENTS FORUM
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
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PRESIDENTS FORUM: 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 PRESIDENTS FORUM?
- PRESIDENTS FORUM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,060,000 to it, the largest being Ascendium Education Solutions Inc ($500,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PRESIDENTS FORUM have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $1,060,000 in grants to PRESIDENTS FORUM, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PRESIDENTS FORUM?
- Ascendium Education Solutions Inc 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 PRESIDENTS FORUM 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 Presidents Forum →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 5 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