Georgia · Nonprofit
SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC
SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC (Georgia) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,921,635 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($6,000,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $15M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $20M
- Net assets
- $35M
What Southern Education Foundation Inc does
Mission
The southern education foundation's mission is to advance equity and excellence in education for all students in the south, particularly low-income students and students of color. Sef uses collaboration, advocacy, and research to improve outcomes from early childhood to adulthood. Our core belief is that education is the vehicle by which all students get fair chances to develop their talents and contribute to the common good. Sef strives to fulfill its mission through the following core program areas: expanding early learning opportunities, advancing public education and improving college access and completion. Sef executes five primary strategies across our programs: leveraging knowledge of the field: by establishing and operating task forces, work groups, and learning communities to organize knowledge and advance new solutions to long standing problems; putting good ideas to a fair test: promoting, conducting, and using demonstrations, pilots, and evaluations to shape policy and prac
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
During the year, the Foundation entered into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with The Browns Promise Project ("Browns Promise") to provide administrative support. The Foundation receives a fee for providing administrative support to Browns Promise. The Foundation is to receive 10% of the first $1 million in funds received by Brown's Promise and then 5% of all funds received thereafter within the calendar year.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Southern Education Leadership Initiative Embedded across the strategies of SEF's three programmatic areas is our long-standing leadership development initiative, the Southern Education Leadership Initiative (SELI). Launched in 2004 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, SELI has now entered its third decade of cultivating leadership for educational equity and opportunity across the South. As we prepare to mark SELI's 21st year, we celebrate a legacy of 299 college and graduate students who have completed intensive training and paid summer fellowships through the program. These emerging leaders-diverse, driven, and deeply committed-represent the next generation of changemakers shaping the future of education policy and practice. Fellowship Overview The Southern Education Leadership Initiative (SELI) is an intensive, eight-week, paid summer fellowship for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students interested in advancing racial equity and improving education across the pre-kindergarten to college continuum. It is a continuation of SEF's legacy of educating leaders in the South, which spans more than a century. Our initiative recognized that there…
$8,895,442 spentof which $60,000 as grants$344,526 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $8,895,442.
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 $28M to $33M (+17%).
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 7% · 2022 3% · 2023 21% · 2024 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
56% of SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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
Dr Hakim Lucas
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $988k → $3.3M.
7 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
50% 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 SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 70% · 2019 73% · 2020 66% · 2021 54% · 2022 82% · 2023 24% — 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
14% of SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 31% 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
SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Georgia, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 4,064 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,064 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.2M on record.
- Department of Education$3.2M
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 SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION 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 Georgia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
54%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION 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 SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC?
- SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC (Georgia) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,921,635 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($6,000,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $19,921,635 in grants to SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $6,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Georgia. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 36 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