American Academy of Sciences and Letters Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 923208317
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Dover, DE, USA
- Phone
- 2624411809
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Professional Societies, Associations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,175,000
- Expenses
- $2,035,969
- Assets
- $324,413
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Donald Landry (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Gregory Forster (Exec. Director): $185,253 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The American Academy of Sciences and Letters (AASL) promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, and learned professions. It encourages the fruitful exchange of ideas within academia and society at large by sponsoring occasions for scholarly interaction and providing platforms for the presentation and dissemination of scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering.In addition to awarding cash prizes to renowned scholars, the organization is dedicated to revitalizing intellectual life and restoring the intellectual rigor and diversity of American colleges, universities, and public intellectual discourse. AASL supports the fundamental and constitutive mission of colleges and universities as truth-seeking, knowledge advancing institutions in numerous ways. It produces white papers examining such topics as academic freedom and integrity, the crisis of the humanities, and the responsibilities of educators, and
What it reported doing in 2025
The American Academy of Sciences and Letters awards the Barry Prize which is a cash prize for scholars across diverse fields and disciplines and is intended to honor those whose work has made outstanding contributions to humanity's knowledge, appreciation, and cultivation of the good, the true, and the beautiful. Recipients are nominated by the members of the Academy and appointed by the board of directors.The organization also awards the Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom on an annual basis to a public thinker who displays extraordinary courage in the exercise of intellectual freedom.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 74% of its reported program spending out as grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 91
- Transparency & Controls: 75
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 88.8%; rating input score 89
- Program expense ratio: 94.9%; rating input score 95
- Fundraising efficiency: $110.33 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 6.4%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.16; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.1%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 31.8% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 19.6% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -21.2% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 88.8% of revenue deployed · 94.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $185K · 11 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 47/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 36/100.