GrantmakersMaryland

American Federation for Children Growth

Columbia, MD · EIN 52-2111508. Reported 45 grants totalling $10.4M to 27 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

27organizations funded
$120,000median reported grant
$10.4Mgranted, 2021-2024
50%of grantees funded again the next year
31%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 Federation for Children Growth, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B90) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 27 distinct organizations, with 31% 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. 50% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $120,000. Half of what it reported fell between $40,000 and $350,000; the smallest was $13,200 and the largest $965,000. 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.
$10,000 - $25,000
6 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
6 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
4 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
13 grants
$250,000 Or More
16 grants

1 of those grants was non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $13,200 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
School Choice Ohio IncColumbus, OH$3,243,500442024
Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina IncRaleigh, NC$1,935,000442024
Institute for Quality Education IncIndianapolis, IN$1,055,000442024
Childrens Education Alliance of MissouriSaint Louis, MO$550,000112022
Empower Kentucky Parents IncDallas, TX$500,000112024
Keep Kids FirstLincoln, NE$388,200212023
Opportunity Scholarships of NebraskaLincoln, NE$350,000222024
School Choice Wisconsin IncBrookfield, WI$350,000112021
Invest in Education Foundation IncDelmar, NY$291,662112022
Edchoice KentuckyFrankfort, KY$273,000332023
Palmetto Promise InstituteColumbia, SC$255,000332024
Partners for Educational Freedom NcRaleigh, NC$200,000112022
Education Freedom AlabamaBirmingham, AL$150,000112024
Palmetto Promise ImpactColumbia, SC$140,000112022
Hoosiers for Quality Education IncIndianapolis, IN$120,000112022
My Sc EducationColumbia, SC$100,000112021
School Choice Ohio Alliance IncColumbus, OH$100,000112022
Let Mi Kids LearnOkemos, MI$80,000112022
Padres Unidos IncPhoenix, AZ$70,000332023
The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public PolicyRound Hill, VA$65,000112022
Children Scholarship Fund PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, PA$50,000112024
Iowa Association of Christian Schools FoundationWest Des Moines, IA$40,000112024
Scissortail Community Development CorporationOklahoma City, OK$40,000222023
West Virginia Families United for Education IncorporatedFlat Top, WV$27,000112023
Nebraska Coalition of Nonpublic SchoolsSeward, NE$25,000112024
Pa Families for Education Choice IncPittsburgh, PA$25,000112024
Iowa Alliance for Choice in EducationDes Moines, IA$20,000112022

8 of 27 (30%) 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 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 20 of 27 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
16 orgs
Community Improvement
2 orgs
Health Care
1 org
Public & Societal Benefit
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20217$2,506,500$350,000
202216$3,488,162$120,000
202311$2,048,700$100,000
202411$2,400,000$100,000

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

32% of its giving went to organizations in Ohio. 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.

Ohio
$3.3M
North Carolina
$2.1M
Indiana
$1.2M
Nebraska
$763K
Missouri
$550K
Texas
$500K
South Carolina
$495K
Wisconsin
$350K

Down to the city

Columbus, OH
$3.3M
Raleigh, NC
$2.1M
Indianapolis, IN
$1.2M
Lincoln, NE
$738K
Saint Louis, MO
$550K
Dallas, TX
$500K

Find more funders like American Federation for Children Growth

We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.

No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.

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.

American Federation for Children Inc10 shared recipientsEdchoice Inc7 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund6 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program6 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc6 shared recipientsMorgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc4 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 $120,000 -- 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 Ohio.
  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 OhioEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in North CarolinaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from American Federation for Children Growth'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 10 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 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: 10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy 300-343, Columbia, MD, 21044.

EIN 52-2111508 · 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.