Center for Educational Progress
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 332563070
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2024
- Location
- Dover, DE, USA
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $137,850
- Expenses
- $53,281
- Assets
- $84,569
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Thomas Dalton Briggs (Interim Executive Director)
- Jack Despain Zhou (Executive Director on leave)
People named in this filing
- Thomas Dalton Briggs (Interim Executive Director)
- Joshua James Dwyer (Director)
- Jack Despain Zhou (Executive Director on leave)
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
The Center for Educational Progress is a 501c3 thinktank formed to reorient American education toward a culture of excellence. We publish thinkpieces research model policies and commentary on our website as well as our own research projects on access to gifted and talented programs educational attainment and educational opportunities.
What it reported doing in 2025
We gained nearly 2,000 subscribers hovering between 35-48 yearly paid subscribers for the work we publish on substack related to our organizations mission.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 97% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 62
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 38.7%; rating input score 39
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 61.3%; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.59; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 100%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 38.7% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $53K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 0/100.