The Jack Miller Center for Teaching America's Founding Principles And

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
261147689
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-PF 2010
Location
Bala Cynwyd, PA, USA
Phone
4844362060
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Private Operating Foundations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$8,580,820
Expenses
$8,209,407
Assets
$16,700,005
Liabilities
$2,066,427

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

Leadership & pay

21 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • HANS ZEIGER (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • HANS ZEIGER (PRESIDENT): $358,555 total reported compensation
  • TOM KELLY (SVP AND CPO): $184,845 total reported compensation
  • QURISHA HENDRICKSON (VP & CHIEF O): $177,327 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 mission of the jack miller center for teaching americas founding principles and history, inc. (a nonprofit organization) (hereinafter referred to as the organization) is to reinvigorate education in americas founding principles and history. The organization works to advance the teaching and study of americas history, its political and economic institutions, and the central principles, ideas and issues arising from the american and western traditions. The organization focuses on three pillars: growing the talent pipeline of professors and scholars dedicated to the teaching and study of america's founding principles and history, transforming the model for graduate education and professional development of k-12 civics and history teachers, and building collaboration among civics organizations, funders, and civil society leaders to strengthen civics efforts around the nation.

What it reported doing in 2025

The jack miller center is a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to reinvigorating the teaching of america's founding principles and history. Through its work with a national network of scholars and partner institutions, the center supports civics and history educators at every level and strengthens the broader national civics movement. The center strengthened the talent pipeline of academic scholars through syllabus and publishing workshops, mentorship programs, leadership training, and campus center-building support. Programs included a new american historian conference, the 2025 jack miller fellowship for 24 scholars, a directors summit for 50 leaders of university civics centers, and 64 america 250 and constitution day programs for students led by scholars in its network. For k-12 civics and history educators, the center orchestrated 66 scholar-led professional development programs and graduate courses reaching 1,100 teachers, conducted its yearlong american civic tradition fellowship for 15 teachers, and grew its consortium of universities offering subject-focused graduate courses to 13 institutions. For community college faculty, the center conducted seminars in New York city, los angeles, and miami on building courses grounded in primary source texts. To grow the national civics movement, the center also published a civics magazine with essays from influential leaders, produced 24 scholar interviews promoting their scholarship, publicized more than 140 opportunities for scholars, and partnered with 95 organizations and institutions to amplify shared efforts.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 80% for direct work, and 20% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 72
  • Transparency & Controls: 72
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 45
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 76.4%; rating input score 76
  • Program expense ratio: 78.8%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $8.24 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 18th 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: 95.5%; rating input score 96; 36th 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: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4.3%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.03; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.2%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.4% per year; rating input score 100; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.3% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -1.7% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 76.4% of revenue deployed · 78.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 16 of 16 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $6.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $359K · 21 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 35 of 36 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2015 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 75 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 45 filed related-organization links
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

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

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 29/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 41/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.