Virginia · Nonprofit
Thomas B Fordham Institute
Thomas B Fordham Institute (Virginia) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,347,371 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($4,288,334). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.8M
- Funders on record
- 43
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $4.2M
What Thomas B Fordham Institute does
Mission
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is the nation's leader in advancing educational excellence through quality research, analysis, and commentary, as well as on-the-ground action and advocacy in Ohio.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Commentary: framed the debate for other ed reformers; weighed in on urgent topics of the day; and promoted policies that increase access to high quality choices and that maintain rigorous standards, especially through our blogs and the education gadfly.
$1,134,406 spent32% of program spendingResearching and Evaluating Ohio Education Policy: produced and disseminated studies, analyses, and other information aimed at strengthening and improving education policy in Ohio, including the publication a of bi-weekly electronic news-brief titled the Ohio education gadfly, and analyzed key education policy issues.
$1,001,187 spentof which $5,750 as grants28% of program spendingResearching and Evaluating High Quality School Choice: produced and disseminated studies that examine how the expansion of charter schools is impacting traditional public schools, whether charter teachers exhibit higher expectations for their students than their public school peers, and the impact and spending patterns of so-called "for profit" charter schools, among other topics.
$634,488 spent18% of program spendingResearching and Evaluating Education for Upward Mobility: Producing and disseminating studies and policy briefs identifying evidence-based solutions and best-practice recommendations that help children born into poverty transcend their disadvantages and enter the middle class as adults, including high-quality Career and Technical Education programs. Program expenses include direct and indirect expenditures.
$502,312 spent14% of program spendingResearching and Evaluating Standards, Assessments, and Accountability: Producing and disseminating studies related to the implementation of standards-based reform, especially with respect to new measures of student absenteeism, evidence-based practices in elementary schools, and the history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Program expenses include direct and indirect expenditures.
$298,201 spent8% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,570,594.
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 2020 to 2021, from $7.0M to $10M (+43%).
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.
96% of Thomas B Fordham Institute’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. 5 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.
Board chair
Bruno V Manno
Chairman/Trustee
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 12 funders to 10 funders, grant income fell $1.5M → $1.4M.
7 of 43 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 Thomas B Fordham Institute’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 43 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
Thomas B Fordham Institute 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 50% · 2019 35% · 2020 28% · 2021 24% · 2022 27% · 2023 43% — 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
36% of Thomas B Fordham Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 51% 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
Thomas B Fordham Institute draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 17 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
Thomas B Fordham Institute's revenue grew 28% between 2019 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,761 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Thomas B Fordham Institute
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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
38%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Thomas B Fordham Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Thomas B Fordham Institute: 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 Thomas B Fordham Institute?
- Thomas B Fordham Institute (Virginia) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,347,371 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($4,288,334). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Thomas B Fordham Institute have?
- IRS filings report 43 organizations giving $14,347,371 in grants to Thomas B Fordham Institute, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Thomas B Fordham Institute?
- GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,288,334 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Thomas B Fordham Institute 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 FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 43 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