Virginia · Nonprofit
STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC
STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC (Virginia) receives grants from 91 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,946,098 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($8,282,750). 66 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2026
- $6.0M
- Funders on record
- 91
- Grants received
- $21M
- Net assets
- $2.0M
What Students for Liberty Inc does
Mission
To educate, develop, and empower the next generation of leaders of liberty.
As stated on its FY2026 Form 990.
Programs
Sfl conferences serve many purposes including giving students experience in organizing and networking. The main focus of every conference schedule is on education. Every conference covers both introductory and advanced material for students to learn about pro-liberty ideas at every level. Sfl ran 3,766 conferences/events/trainings reaching 221,404 individuals in fy26.
$1,219,504 spentof which $43,345 as grants$11,331 earned by the program28% of program spendingSfl's emphasis on leadership development has been the key to the organization's success over the years. Sfl teaches young people entrepreneurship, event planning, volunteer management, effective writing, public speaking and other skills that they can use throughout their lives and gives them experience applying these skills in building the student movement for liberty. Sfl conducted trainings for 11,545 student volunteers that engage with thousands of student groups across the world during fy26.
$1,299,087 spent29% of program spendingSfl provides in person and online educational trainings to its leaders and a wider audience of interested students. Sfl also runs the learn liberty youtube channel with over 58.4m views and over 299,000 subscribers. Learn liberty is our resource for exploring the ideas of a free society. We tackle big questions about what makes society free or prosperous and how we can improve the world we live in.
$348,109 spent8% of program spendingIncludes marketing, communications, outreach, tech/web and design expenses for handouts, websites and marketing sfl's mission and successes.
$1,553,930 spent35% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2026 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,420,630.
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 2023 to 2024, from $5.2M to $2.5M (−52%).
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.
99% of STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 10 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
Dr Wolf Von Laer
CEO
Board chair
Wayne Olson
Chairman
As listed on its FY2026 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 25 funders to 43 funders, grant income rose $529k → $4.6M.
11 of 91 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% 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 STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 91 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
STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
60% 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 STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 26% · 2019 25% · 2020 26% · 2021 42% · 2022 38% · 2023 44% — growing more concentrated.
“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
56% of STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
56% of STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY 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 $9.3M that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from funders outside Virginia, across 23 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $12M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC's revenue grew 53% between 2017 and 2026.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 204 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2026
Organizations like STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY 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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
63%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 42 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY 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 STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC?
- STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC (Virginia) receives grants from 91 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,946,098 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($8,282,750). 66 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC have?
- IRS filings report 91 organizations giving $20,946,098 in grants to STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC, 66 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $8,282,750 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 FY2026 (financials across 2017–2026), and the filings of 91 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing