Achieving the Dream Inc
Silver Spring, MD · EIN 27-1635830. Reported 93 grants totalling $4,102,048 to 63 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Achieving the Dream Inc, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B90) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 63 distinct organizations, with 8% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 31% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $25,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $59,600; the smallest was $6,500 and the largest $136,500. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Community College District | Austin, TX | $330,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Northern Virginia Community College | Fairfax, VA | $226,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Pierce College | Lakewood, WA | $225,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Cuyahoga Community College District | Cleveland, OH | $211,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Northeast Wisconsin Technical College | Green Bay, WI | $211,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Bay College | Escanaba, MI | $210,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Community College of Philadelphia Foundation | Philadelphia, PA | $210,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Lorain County Community College | Elyria, OH | $210,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Northern Essex Community College | Haverhill, MA | $210,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Research Foundation of the City University of New York | New York, NY | $210,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Fort Peck Community College | Poplar, MT | $120,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| College of the Menominee Nation | Keshena, WI | $85,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University | Hayward, WI | $85,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Salish Kootenai College Inc | Pablo, MT | $85,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Aaniiih Nakoda College | Harlem, MT | $81,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Red Lake Nation College | Red Lake, MN | $80,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Teachers College Columbia University | New York, NY | $68,554 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Minnesota State Colleges and Universities | Cloquet, MN | $66,230 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Tennessee Board of Regents | Nashville, TN | $59,600 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| United Tribes Technical College | Bismarck, ND | $56,666 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Tallahassee Community College | Tallahassee, FL | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College | New Town, ND | $48,166 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Alamo Community College District | San Antonio, TX | $45,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Borough of Manhattan Community College | New York, NY | $45,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Harper College | Palatine, IL | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Jackson State University | Jackson, MS | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| University of Maryland Foundation Inc | Adelphi, MD | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ilisagvik College | Barrow, AK | $41,666 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Stone Child College Corporation | Box Elder, MT | $41,666 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Grayson College | Denison, TX | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| North Central State College | Mansfield, OH | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Dallas College Eastfield Campus | Mesquite, TX | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| El Paso Community College | El Paso, TX | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Northwest Mississippi Community College | Senatobia, MS | $27,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College | Versailles, KY | $27,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Chattanooga State Community College Foundation | Chattanooga, TN | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Everett Community College | Everett, WA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College Foundation | Cloquet, MN | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Forsyth Technical Community College | Winston Salem, NC | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sinclair Community College | Dayton, OH | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Southwestern Oregon Community College | Coos Bay, OR | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Aspen Institute Inc | Washington, DC | $22,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Berkshire Community College | Pittsfield, MA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Elgin Community College | Elgin, IL | $16,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Passaic County Community College Foundation | Paterson, NJ | $16,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Claflin University | Orangeburg, SC | $15,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Coastal Bend College | Beeville, TX | $15,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| College of Southern Maryland | La Plata, MD | $15,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hinds Community College | Raymond, MS | $15,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lincoln University Foundation of Pennsylvania | Lincoln Univ, PA | $15,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan | Mount Pleasant, MI | $15,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Amarillo Junior College District | Amarillo, TX | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Durham Technical Community College | Durham, NC | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lee College | Baytown, TX | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Patrick Henry Community College | Martinsville, VA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Western Technical College | La Crosse, WI | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| William Rainey Harper College | Palatine, IL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Houston Commuity College System | Houston, TX | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| National Student Clearinghouse | Herndon, VA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Berkshire Community College Foundation Inc | Pittsfield, MA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Clovis Community College | Clovis, NM | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Columbia-Greene Community College | Hudson, NY | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Halifax Community College | Weldon, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
28 of 63 (44%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 17 of 63 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 13 | $470,394 | $41,666 |
| 2022 | 43 | $1,989,154 | $15,500 |
| 2023 | 25 | $1,280,000 | $40,000 |
| 2024 | 12 | $362,500 | $25,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
13% of its giving went to organizations in Texas. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $25,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Texas.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Achieving the Dream Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 12 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 8484 Georgia Avenue 500, Silver Spring, MD, 20910.
EIN 27-1635830 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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