National Academy Foundation

What National Academy Foundation does

National Academy Foundation (NAF) is a 501(c)(3) national education nonprofit founded in 1980 and headquartered at 169 Madison Avenue, New York. NAF partners with high schools and school districts to establish career-focused academies—small learning communities embedded within existing high schools—delivering curriculum across 95+ career pathways aligned with the National Career Clusters Framework, including Finance, Information Technology, Health Sciences, Hospitality & Tourism, and Engineering. During the 2022-23 school year, NAF operated over 600 academies serving more than 112,000 students across 35 states and territories, with over 700,000 cumulative students reached since founding. Reported outcomes include a 99% high school graduation rate and 88% college-bound rate among NAF academy seniors in 2022.

NAF's core technology stack comprises four interconnected platforms: NAFTrack (a student tracking and certification system that records coursework, internships, and graduation status to issue the NAFTrack Certification credential); the Academy Support Hub or ASH (a web platform for educators to manage academy operations, curricula, work-based learning activities, and professional development); KnoPro (an industry-sponsored work-based learning challenge platform that extends NAF programming beyond its own academy network); and supporting tools including the Work-Based Learning Tracker, Open Data Index for Schools (ODIS), and the Future Ready Skills Assessment. The organization layers AI only minimally, using ChatGPT 4.0 solely for internal document summarization with explicit PII and training-data safeguards.

NAF operates as a B2B2C nonprofit funded through grants, corporate partnerships, and individual donations; all programs and services are delivered to schools and students free of charge. Revenue streams include multi-year philanthropic grants (e.g., a $5M, two-year lead grant from American Student Assistance in 2025 as part of a seven-year strategic partnership; a $250K grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation in 2023), structured corporate partnerships that provide funding, volunteers, and internship placements, and individual giving through naf.org. NAF pursues a community-led go-to-market via field-based portfolio managers who onboard new academies and convene local industry advisory boards, with annual conferences (NAF Next) and benefit events serving as key engagement milestones. Leadership includes CEO T. Brent Chapel, Chairman Gregory Hayes, and Vice Chairman Kenneth I. Chenault.

Name

National Academy Foundation

Legal name

National Academy Foundation

Website

https://naf.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1980

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Career and Technical Education Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), All Other Schools and Instruction (61169)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Virtual CTE & Career Pathways Programs (K–12) (EDAJADAL)

Keywords

• Career-focused education
• Work-based learning
• High school academies
• College readiness programs
• Career certification

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Grants and Philanthropic Funding: NAF operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization funded primarily through grants from foundations and philanthropic organizations. The $5 million grant from American Student Assistance exemplifies this revenue stream, structured as a multi-year commitment.
2. Corporate Partnerships and Donations: Structured relationships with corporate partners who provide financial support, in-kind contributions, volunteer hours, and internship opportunities. Companies partner with NAF to shape their future workforce and fulfill corporate social responsibility goals.
3. Individual Donations: NAF accepts individual donations through its website, with a donate button prominently featured on the main navigation.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

NAF is a national education nonprofit that partners with high schools to establish small learning communities called NAF Academies, delivering career-focused curriculum across five pathways (Finance, Information Technology, Health Sciences, Hospitality & Tourism, and Engineering), work-based learning experiences, and industry mentorship. Its offering is anchored by proprietary platforms — NAFTrack for student certification tracking, the Academy Support Hub (ASH) for academy operations, KnoPro for industry-sponsored challenges, and ODIS for school performance benchmarking — plus the NAFTrack Certification credential that signals career readiness to employers and colleges.

Product overview

NAF (National Academy Foundation) is a national education nonprofit that transforms the high school experience by connecting students to career opportunities through a network of career-focused academies and digital platforms. The core offering consists of NAFTrack (student tracking and certification system) and ASH (Academy Support Hub) for network operations, complemented by KnoPro (work-based learning platform for challenges and competitions), the NAF Curriculum across five career pathways (Finance, IT, Health Sciences, Hospitality & Tourism, and Engineering), and the WBL Tracker for monitoring work-based learning activities. NAFTrack Certification serves as the career readiness credential, while ODIS provides data analytics, NAF Next offers annual professional development conferences, the Future Ready Skills Assessment evaluates student competencies, and the Alumni Network maintains post-graduation engagement. The organization operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 1980.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ASH (Academy Support Hub): Online platform for active NAF network schools to record, access, and assess NAF Academy development, resources, and operations.
• NAFTrack
• KnoPro
• NAFTrack Certification
• NAF Next

Products and services

• NAFTrack Student tracking and certification system used by NAF network schools to record student information, class and grade data, internship information, and graduation status, certifying students as NAFTrack Certified upon high school graduation.
• Academy Support Hub (ASH) Online platform for active NAF network schools providing access to academy development tools, data collection and reporting, student curriculum, work-based learning tracking, and resources for continuous academy improvement.
• KnoPro Industry-sponsored, work-based learning platform that brings real workplace challenges and competitions to high school students beyond NAF academies, enabling them to solve real problems and build career-ready skills.
• NAF Curriculum Career-focused curriculum aligned with the National Career Clusters Framework, covering Finance, Information Technology, Health Sciences, Hospitality & Tourism, and Engineering pathways.
• WBL Tracker (Work-Based Learning Tracker) Tool that helps educators track student participation in work-based learning activities throughout the school year, including career awareness, exploration, and preparation activities.
• NAFTrack Certification NAF's seal of career readiness representing student completion of work-based learning experiences and career-related coursework with industry and community partner support.
• Open Data Index for Schools (ODIS) Data tracking and reporting tool providing schools with access to performance metrics and benchmarking data.
• NAF Alumni Network Free network providing ongoing engagement, resources, and opportunities for NAF graduates after high school completion.
• NAF Next Conference Annual professional development conference connecting educators, business leaders, and industry partners to learn and collaborate on preparing students for future readiness.
• Future Ready Skills Assessment Assessment tool used by industry supervisors to evaluate student skills during Career Preparation activities such as internships, clinicals, apprenticeships, or mentored industry projects.

Quantifiable outcome

• 99% of NAF academy seniors graduated high school in 2022
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• American Student AssistancecoreOthers · 2 October 2025Seven-year partnership beginning with a two-year, $5 million grant to strengthen and expand career-based education for high school students nationwide. The partnership aims to deepen work-based learning, expand career exploration, and reach more students across the U.S., leveraging ASA's expertise in early career exposure.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• EVERFI: K-12 education technology company delivering digital lessons on career readiness, financial literacy, and social-emotional learning through school and district partnerships, with a comparable free-to-schools, funder-supported distribution model.
• Year Up: Workforce development nonprofit combining technical skills training, work-based learning, and corporate partnerships to prepare young adults for career-track employment, sharing NAF's industry-aligned, employer-validated approach to talent pipeline development.
• Kuder: Career planning and assessment provider serving students and schools with interest inventories, career guidance, and graduation tracking tools, comparable to NAFTrack's assessment and certification components.
• Big Picture Learning: National nonprofit network that partners with high schools to create small learning communities centered on student interests and real-world work experiences, closely paralleling NAF's academy-within-a-school model and career-connected learning mission.
• Xello: K-12 college and career readiness software providing personalized career planning, assessments, and portfolio tools to students, competing for the same school district adoption decisions as NAFTrack and related NAF platforms.
• Naviance by PowerSchool: K-12 college, career, and life readiness platform used by schools and districts for student planning, assessments, and tracking, directly overlapping NAFTrack and ODIS functionality in college and career readiness data tracking.
• Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG): State-based nonprofit delivering career readiness, work-based learning, and dropout prevention programs to high school students, with similar outcome-reporting frameworks (graduation, college/career placement) and school-district partnership model.

Others

• International Youth Foundation (IYF): Global nonprofit focused on preparing young people for employment and civic engagement through partnerships with corporate, government, and education stakeholders, addressing the same youth-workforce pipeline theme as NAF at a broader geographic and thematic scope.

Broad incumbents

• Education Development Center (EDC): Large nonprofit that designs, implements, and evaluates education and workforce programs globally, with overlapping career-pathways and youth-workforce initiatives, though operating across a much broader portfolio beyond CTE.

Emerging players

• ConnectEd Studios (LinkedIn): LinkedIn initiative providing career-connected learning content and work-based learning resources to high school students through school district partnerships, representing a deep-pocketed, for-profit entrant into the career-readiness space NAF occupies.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/nafcareeracads
• YouTubeyoutube.com/nafcareeracads
• Facebookfacebook.com/nafcareeracads
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/school/nafcareeracads
• Instagraminstagram.com/nafcareeracads

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 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 National Academy Foundation