GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

American Councils for International

Washington, DC · EIN 52-1067256. Reported 35 grants totalling $907,496 to 24 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

24organizations funded
$23,700median reported grant
$907,496granted, 2020-2023
22%of grantees funded again the next year
12%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For American Councils for International, the IRS classifies it under international affairs rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE Q220) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 24 distinct organizations, with 12% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 22% 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 $23,700. Half of what it reported fell between $16,000 and $31,998; the smallest was $6,881 and the largest $52,324. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
2 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
16 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
16 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
1 grant

10 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $191,148 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Board of Regents of the University of NebraskaLincoln, NE$106,460322022
University of DelawareNewark, DE$97,195332022
Lehigh UniversityBethlehem, PA$82,204222022
Michigan State UniversityEast Lansing, MI$59,694222023
University of PittsburghPittsburgh, PA$56,541222021
Rutgers the State UniversityPiscataway, NJ$45,913222022
Iowa State UniversityAmes, IA$40,000112020
Worcester Polytechnic InstituteWorcester, MA$37,999222022
Trustees of Purdue UniversityWest Lafayette, IN$36,800222022
Regents of University of MinnesotaMinneapolis, MN$31,998112020
Trustees of Indiana UniversityBlomington, IN$31,998112020
Kansas State UniversityManhattan, KS$31,744112020
University of North TexasDenton, TX$31,480112020
Ohio University FoundationAthens, OH$30,659222022
Pennsylvania State UniversityState College, PA$27,656112021
Kettering UniversityFlint, MI$23,700112021
Old Dominion University Research FoundationNorfolk, VA$23,570112021
University of ArkansasFayetteville, AR$23,450112023
University of CincinnatiCincinnati, OH$19,200112022
Washington UniversitySt Louis, MO$19,200112021
Center for Applied LinguisticsWashington, DC$15,000112022
University of New MexicoAlbuquerque, NM$14,986112023
University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni AssociationOmaha, NE$13,168112020
Leech Lake Band of OjibweCass Lake, MN$6,881112022

9 of 24 (38%) 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.

It also reported 3 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 9 of 24 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.

Education
8 orgs
Youth Development
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20209$245,984$31,744
202113$419,129$30,339
202210$191,148$17,431
20233$51,235$14,986

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

18% of its giving went to organizations in Pennsylvania. 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.

Pennsylvania
$166K
Nebraska
$120K
Delaware
$97K
Michigan
$83K
Indiana
$69K
Ohio
$50K
New Jersey
$46K
Iowa
$40K

Down to the city

Lincoln, NE
$106K
Newark, DE
$97K
Bethlehem, PA
$82K
East Lansing, MI
$60K
Pittsburgh, PA
$57K
Piscataway, NJ
$46K

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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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc8 shared recipientsJohns Hopkins University8 shared recipientsAmerican Heart Association Inc8 shared recipientsCornell University8 shared recipientsAmerican Chemical Society7 shared recipientsHispanic Scholarship Fund7 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $23,700 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Pennsylvania.
  4. 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

Foundations funding education in PennsylvaniaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from American Councils for International's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 3 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: 1828 L Street Nw 1200, Washington, DC, 20036.

EIN 52-1067256 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.