Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
TEACHING FOR CHANGE
TEACHING FOR CHANGE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,007,792 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($786,899). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 48
- Grants received
- $4.0M
- Net assets
- $1.6M
What Teaching for Change does
Mission
Teaching for Change provides teachers and parents with the tools to create schools where students learn to read, write, and change the world. This is accomplished through various initiatives including social justice books, civil rights teaching, teach central america, zinn education project (with rethinking schools), and dc area educators for social justice.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Zinn education project - teaching people's history, coordinated with rethinking schools, offers hundreds of free, downloadable teaching activities for middle and high school classrooms to bring people's history to the classroom. The teaching activities and resources are organized by theme, time period, and grade level. The zinn education project also coordinates teacher study groups, workshops, and campaigns on reconstruction and climate justice.
$658,285 spent$45,625 earned by the program71% of program spendingDc teachers - dc area educators for social justice Teaching for Change coordinates professional development, teacher study groups, and other activities to support social justice educators in the dc metro area. Included in this work are the annual black lives matter at school week of action; teach the beat: go-go in schools; teach central america; and collaborative programs with howard university, national museum of the american indian, sncc legacy project, international filmfest dc, and other institutions.
$97,996 spent$12,490 earned by the program11% of program spendingSocial justice books - our social justice books project vets and promotes social justice books for children and adults in response to the wide diversity gap in children's books and the publishing industry. Our lists of recommended books and critical book reviews (from trusted organizations and our own staff) are available to teachers and parents at the website socialjusticebooks.org. We offer more than 100 booklists on a variety of themes, a database of critical reviews, and recommended articles on multicultural children's literature and critical literacy. In addition to screening books, Teaching for Change has been involved in a number of efforts to have books edited. While not primarily involved in resale, bookshop.org offers a percentage of its revenue from any books sold via our dedicated store on their platform. We also receive donations to sustain the book vetting and promotion.
$52,584 spent$18,884 earned by the program6% of program spendingCrm
$37,229 spent$3,745 earned by the program4% of program spendingOutside projects
$30,778 spent$32,892 earned by the program3% of program spendingCentral america
$25,932 spent$2,250 earned by the program3% of program spendingProfessional development
$19,332 spent$8,998 earned by the program2% of program spendingVia
$880 spent0% of program spendingIslam
$382 spent0% of program spending
The 9 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $923,398.
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 $532k to $1.2M (+132%).
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 3% · 2021 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of TEACHING FOR CHANGE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Deborah Menkart
Executive director
Board chair
Nzinga Tull
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $436k → $663k.
17 of 48 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 64% 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 TEACHING FOR CHANGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 48 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
TEACHING FOR CHANGE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
67% 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 TEACHING FOR CHANGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 35% · 2019 51% · 2020 42% · 2021 27% · 2022 26% · 2023 28% — 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
30% of TEACHING FOR CHANGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
64% of TEACHING FOR CHANGE'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 $1.4M that is directly attributable, 77% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 18 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
TEACHING FOR CHANGE's revenue grew 54% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 718 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding TEACHING FOR CHANGE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $19k on record — $19k federal, $60 state.
- Smithsonian Institution$19k
- ASSOC DUES AND CONF FEES$60
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 TEACHING FOR CHANGE
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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 TEACHING FOR CHANGE: 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 TEACHING FOR CHANGE?
- TEACHING FOR CHANGE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,007,792 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($786,899). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 64% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does TEACHING FOR CHANGE have?
- IRS filings report 48 organizations giving $4,007,792 in grants to TEACHING FOR CHANGE, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TEACHING FOR CHANGE?
- SEATTLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $786,899 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TEACHING FOR CHANGE 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 Teaching for Change →
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 48 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