American Academy for Liberal Education

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
521789016
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2021, Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2023896550
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Undergraduate College (4-year)

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$54,608
Expenses
$72,256
Assets
$125,177
Liabilities
$135

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Robert Manzer (Board Member President)

People named in this filing

  • Robert Manzer (Board Member President)
  • Rene Paddags (Board Member - Chair)
  • Karl Schumann (Board Member - Secretary)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To promote excellence in liberal education by providing significant academic recognition of programs and schools worldwide that maintain the highest standards of liberal arts learning.

What it reported doing in 2025

Accreditation Education: To establish standards for liberal arts higher education by reviewing standards for undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, reviewing standards for general education or core curriculum by accrediting programs based on its standards and by reviewing other academic requirements that the Academy may be called upon to assess in the course of its operations. K-12 Public Charter Schools: To establish nation-wide voluntary standards for public charter schools with strong academic emphasis, reviewing applications by means of self-studies, site visit reports, school responses and accreditation actions by (granting, deferring or denying) by the Board of Trustees.

Operating model

Revenue model
Membership-supported. 66% of the money available for current operations came from membership dues.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 29
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92.5%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 69.5%; rating input score 69

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -32.3%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.73; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 74%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -12.4% per year; rating input score 0; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -12.6% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 92.5% of revenue deployed · 69.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $50K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 14 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 16/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 30/100.