Teach for America

What Teach for America does

Teach For America is a US national nonprofit founded in 1990 that recruits, trains, and places recent college graduates in two-year teaching roles at underserved K-12 schools across 40+ regions. In the 2024-2025 school year it fielded 4,100 corps members reaching nearly 300,000 students, 2,100 Ignite fellows (part-time paid virtual tutors for current college students) reaching 5,000 students, and maintained a 66,500+ alumni network spanning education, policy, business, and nonprofit sectors. Core products include the Teacher Corps program, the Ignite Fellowship, The Collective (a BIPOC alumni association with 23,000+ members), the Teacher Development and Certification Program, and digital application and interview systems built on standard web platforms.

The organization is investing in AI and machine learning across operations — ML has been used for donor engagement, candidate recruitment, and classroom outcomes analysis, and the organization is now piloting generative AI for placement optimization and synthetic-applicant interviewer training. It has been highlighted by ServiceNow as a nonprofit digital transformation pacesetter and is building a cloud-based identity repository to modernize teacher-school matching.

Teach For America is funded primarily through philanthropic contributions rather than commercial revenue. Income sources include corporate partnerships (notably a $10 million RLUSD grant from Ripple in 2026 as part of Ripple's $25M education commitment, and a multi-country Dow STEM collaboration), foundation grants (DTCare, Kauffman, Martha Holden Jennings Foundation), federal funding (US Department of Education), regional commissions (Appalachian Regional Commission), individual donors, and alumni contributions. Corps members are paid by employing school districts rather than by TFA, which provides baseline stipends of $3,000-$6,500 for summer training and need-based financial support. The organization operates as part of the AmeriCorps national service network.

Name

Teach for America

Legal name

Teach For America, Inc.

Website

https://teachforamerica.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1990

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

Teach For America is a national nonprofit founded in 1990 that recruits and trains recent college graduates for two-year teaching placements in underserved US schools. It currently operates 4,100 corps members, 2,100 Ignite fellows, and a 66,500+ alumni network across 40+ regions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Nonprofit Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Services (611), Exam Preparation and Tutoring (611691)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

Workforce Development & Continuing Education Divisions (Noncredit) (EDAHADAG)

akta.pro secondary industry

Curriculum & Instruction / Instructional Design Programs (EDAHAFAE)

Keywords

• Teacher recruitment programs
• Educational equity services
• Leadership development programs
• Nonprofit teaching fellowships
• Alumni network community

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Philanthropic Grants & Donations: TFA receives significant funding through grants and donations from corporate partners (Ripple's $10M allocation from $25M commitment), individual donors, and foundations supporting educational equity initiatives.
2. Donor Contributions: Ongoing fundraising from alumni network, individual supporters, and corporate sponsors who contribute to TFA's mission of developing education leaders.
3. Corporate Partnership Funding: Strategic partnerships with corporations like Dow provide funding and resources for specific programs such as STEM education initiatives, enabling recruitment and training of STEM Fellows.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Teach For America recruits, selects, and trains recent college graduates through a competitive admissions process for two-year, full-time teaching placements in high-need public schools across 40+ U.S. regions. It also operates the Ignite Fellowship, a part-time, paid virtual tutoring program for current college students, and provides ongoing training, coaching, certification support, mental health services, and alumni career-pathway programming.

Product overview

Teach For America operates as a national network of leaders working to expand educational opportunity, primarily through two core programs: the Teacher Corps (a two-year full-time teaching commitment) and the Ignite Fellowship (a part-time virtual tutoring program for college students). The organization provides comprehensive teacher development and certification support through its training programs, maintains The Collective as its BIPOC alumni association, and offers digital application and interview systems for candidate recruitment. TFA leverages AI and machine learning for operations including donor identification, candidate recruitment, classroom outcome analysis, and is piloting generative AI for placement matching and interviewer training.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Ignite Fellowship: Part-time, paid virtual tutoring role for current college students
• The Collective
• Peter Jennings Award
• Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE)

Products and services

• Teacher Corps A two-year, full-time teaching and leadership program that places selected recent college graduates in underserved public schools as salaried teachers of record, with full benefits paid by the employing school or district.
• Ignite Fellowship A part-time, paid virtual tutoring fellowship for current undergraduate students, providing structured K-12 virtual tutoring experience over a 14-week cycle.
• The Collective (BIPOC Alumni Network) A national alumni association for TFA alumni who identify as BIPOC, providing leadership development, community-building, and collective-action opportunities.

Quantifiable outcome

• 4,100 corps members teaching nearly 300,000 students annually
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered regional, core and support.

• Rice Center for EducationregionalStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Partnership with TFA Houston to provide early childhood-third grade (EC-3) teacher certification to TFA Houston teaching corps members starting fall 2026. The 15-month program combines 315 hours of coursework with 50 hours of classroom observation and full-time teaching, with participants serving as salaried teachers of record.
• DowcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 December 2025Global STEM education collaboration spanning Argentina, Japan, Nigeria, Spain, and the United States. Since 2024, enabled recruitment and placement of 57 STEM Fellows and provided advanced training to 517 STEM teachers during 2024-2025 school year, directly benefiting more than 8,300 students.
• BetterHelpsupportOthersPartnership providing 24/7 confidential mental health counseling services at no cost to corps members. Corps members can engage 1:1 with mental health counselors up to 4 times per month, including unlimited messaging.
• Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFree membership provided to corps members for civic leadership development. LEE is a nonprofit working to inspire and support civic leaders to end educational inequity through community organizing, policy advocacy, and pursuing elected office.
• Wheeler Middle School (Hawai'i)regionalStrategic or Co-development PartnerTFA Hawai'i partnership credited with helping build community and support students at Wheeler Middle School, which serves a highly transient student population. Collaboration positioned as a positive model for educational support in challenging environments.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Broad incumbents

• Peace Corps: Federal service program placing volunteers in international development roles including education. Comparable selective two-year service-year commitment, leadership-development framing, and alumni network strength.
• National Center for Teacher Residencies: Network of teacher residency programs offering year-long clinical training in high-need districts. Comparable teacher-prep mission but delivered through district-embedded residencies rather than a centralized selective corps.
• AmeriCorps: Federal national service program that funds TFA and similar service-year programs. Operates at a broader scale across all service areas, providing policy and funding umbrella for TFA's corps model.

Direct peers

• Teach For All: Global network of independent partner organizations in 60+ countries pursuing the same mission of recruiting graduates to teach in high-need schools. Most directly comparable peer — same mission, model, and selection framework, just operated across national affiliates.
• City Year: AmeriCorps-affiliated national service nonprofit placing young adults in schools to support student attendance, social-emotional learning, and academic outcomes. Comparable selective service-year model, K-12 school-based delivery, and alumni leadership pipeline.
• TNTP (The New Teacher Project): Nonprofit focused on recruiting, training, and supporting teachers in high-need schools, plus district-level policy and consulting. Closely comparable teacher workforce development mission and target customer base (high-need districts).
• KIPP Foundation: National network of college-preparatory charter schools serving underserved communities, with a strong leadership development and alumni pipeline. Comparable educational equity mission, leadership-development framing, and large alumni network.
• Relay Graduate School of Education: Graduate school focused on training teachers and school leaders for high-need schools. Competes for the same candidate pool and shares TFA's mission-driven teacher-prep orientation, but as a degree-granting institution.
• Urban Teachers: Alternative teacher certification program placing career-changers in high-need urban schools. Direct overlap on teacher-prep-for-underserved-schools model, with similarly selective admissions and alumni placement in education leadership.

Emerging players

• Match Education: Boston-based nonprofit combining a charter school with a teacher residency program. Comparable dual focus on K-12 instruction in underserved schools and teacher training pipeline, though at much smaller scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/teachforamerica
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/teach-for-america
• Instagraminstagram.com/teachforamerica
• Xx.com/teachforamerica

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors6 records

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Teach for America