Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES
THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 231 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,171,009 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($5,031,430). 164 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 231
- Grants received
- $28M
- Net assets
- $22M
What The Fund for American Studies does
Mission
The Fund for American Studies (tfas) seeks to create a brighter, more prosperous future by preparing young people for leadership and teaching them the ideas of freedom and a free-market economy. Founded in 1967, tfas organizes programs for college and university students from the united states, europe, the middle east, and latin america who are on paths toward leadership in public policy, journalism, international affairs, business, government and related fields. Our goal is to prepare these young people to serve as honorable leaders by educating them in the ideas most conducive to individual freedom, human achievement and personal responsibility. The Fund for American Studies offers transformational programs that teach the principles of limited government, free market economics, and honorable leadership to students and young professionals. Tfas programs inspire these future leaders to make a difference in their communities and throughout the world by upholding the values essential to the preservation of a free society.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Undergraduate programs: these programs are designed for undergraduate students interested in u.s. Politics, american government, foreign affairs, business government relations and journalism. The programs held in the us offer academic credit for coursework at george mason university, and include internships and site briefings at places such as the white house, the u.s. Capitol, and the state department. Students attend regular guest lectures, and interact with d.c. Professionals through networking activities. Courses are accredited by george mason university. One program is offered by the ronald reagan presidential foundation and institute in conjunction with The Fund for American Studies. It helps students define and strengthen their leadership skills and learn lessons from the american presidency, all while giving them an insider's view of washington. The intensive schedule is designed to maximize the value of their time in washington by combining learning in the classroom with practical internship experience as well as special events and briefings. In addition, The Fund for American Studies (tfas) has organized international academic institutes for more than 25 years, with an…
$7,048,132 spentof which $1,590,283 as grants$6,181,535 earned by the program48% of program spendingHigh school programs: organized by the high school division of tfas, the foundation for teaching economics (fte), these programs include economics for leaders (efl), one day, and online programs for high school students and teachers. The flagship program, efl is a selective week-long summer program that teaches high school students how to integrate economics into the process of decision-making in a hands-on, experiential environment. Programs are held on college campuses across the country. Programs are led by economics professors and leadership instructors selected for their expertise and teaching effectiveness. Morning discussions, activities, and interactive sessions introduce participants to the "economic way of thinking." afternoon sessions build an understanding of leadership and participants practice leadership skills in a fun-filled series of tasks and dilemmas. Students also engage in a creative decision-making challenge in which they apply and demonstrate the skills and knowledge they have gained during the week. In the week-long teacher programs, high school teachers "go back to school and are taught by university professors and mentor teachers. What's unique are the…
$4,358,060 spentof which $206,494 as grants29% of program spendingGraduate and professional programs: these programs serve graduate students and professionals in many different careers, including law, journalism and government affairs. A summer law fellowship for law school students consists of the following major components: a course on originalism with credit through the antonin scalia law school at george mason university; and legal internships with law firms, lobbying firms, public interest legal organizations and legal departments of trade associations, corporations and government agencies throughout the washington area. The robert novak journalism fellowship program allows writers early in their careers to pursue projects they otherwise would be unable to research and report by providing stipends and expenses up to $75,000. The joseph rago memorial fellowship for excellence in journalism provides a nine-month paid internship with the wall street journal's editorial team. This annual fellowship is open to recent college and journalism school graduates and journalists with less than five years' experience. This fellowship is in honor and memory of joseph rago, a former editorial board member at the wall street journal who passed away in…
$2,876,283 spentof which $417,189 as grants19% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$510,170 spent3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,792,645.
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.
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 $22M to $29M (+30%).
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: 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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
Thomas Tucker
Executive director - fte
Board chair
Randal C Teague
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 63 funders to 116 funders, grant income rose $817k → $5.4M.
28 of 231 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.1M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Foundation for Teaching Economics); $41k from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest The Donald and Paula Smith Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES raised.
From the IRS filings of THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 231 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
THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
41% 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 THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 11% · 2018 12% · 2019 21% · 2020 20% · 2021 17% · 2022 19% · 2023 27% — 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
58% of THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES draws 97% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 38 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 21 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.
Organizations like THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Foundation for Teaching Economics · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES: 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 THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES?
- THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 231 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,171,009 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($5,031,430). 164 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES have?
- IRS filings report 231 organizations giving $28,171,009 in grants to THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES, 164 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES?
- Donors Trust Inc is the largest funder on record, with $5,031,430 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES 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.
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 231 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