The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network

What The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network does

The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education is a U.S.-based non-profit professional association founded in March 1976, serving educational developers, faculty, graduate students, and academic administrators in higher education. The organization operates as a community-led membership network with over 1,700 members affiliated with nearly 1,300 teaching and learning centers across all 50 U.S. states and more than 30 countries, making it the oldest and largest educational development organization in the world.

POD's core offerings center on three pillars: a flagship annual fall conference (1,000+ attendees, with the 51st edition scheduled for November 18-21, 2026 in Baltimore, MD), a portfolio of scholarly publications including the journal To Improve the Academy (now self-published in-house since 2021) and the Journal of Diversity and Equity in Educational Development, and an ecosystem of member resources such as PODLive monthly webinars, POD Connects peer mentorship groups, POD Scholarly Reads, affinity groups for underrepresented communities, grants and fellowships, and the Educational Developer Competency Toolkit. The organization also maintains a Centers & Programs Directory covering 1,289 teaching centers and operates a Centering Centers podcast. Technology footprint is limited to standard web delivery, Zoom-based programming, and Google Group forums rather than proprietary platforms.

The business model is funded primarily through annual membership dues ($150 individual, $105 student, reduced retired rate), conference registration fees with member discounts, paid institutional job postings on the POD job board, and tax-deductible donations supporting member subsidies, research grants, and travel assistance. The organization is governed by an elected Core Committee, led by President Carl S. Moore and Executive Director Danielle Gabriel, with core operational staff of two (Executive Director and Operations and Member Services Coordinator Eun Sandoval-Lee), supplemented by member volunteers, committee structures, and partner-hosted institutes such as the 2026 Institute for New Educational Developers with Temple University and the Organizational Development Institute with AACU.

Name

The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network

Legal name

The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education

Website

https://podnetwork.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1976

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The POD Network is a U.S.-based non-profit professional association founded in 1976 that serves educational developers, faculty, and academic administrators through membership, an annual conference, scholarly publications, peer mentorship, and grants across 1,700+ members and nearly 1,300 teaching centers in 30+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Nederland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership fees provide core revenue. Individual memberships are $150/year, student memberships $105/year, and retired memberships at reduced rates. Members receive benefits including conference discounts, access to publications, grants, awards, and networking resources.
2. Annual Conference Revenue: The annual fall conference generates revenue through registration fees. Members receive discounted pricing compared to non-members. The conference consistently draws over 1,000 attendees and represents a major revenue stream for the organization.
3. Job Postings: The organization charges institutions to post job listings on the POD Network website, generating revenue from organizations seeking to recruit educational development professionals.
4. Donations: The POD Network accepts donations to support member attendance, membership subsidies, research grants, and areas of greatest need. Recurring gift options are available.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The POD Network is a non-profit professional association founded in 1976 that supports educational developers and faculty working in higher education teaching and learning centers. It delivers individual and institutional memberships, an annual in-person conference, webinars, scholarly publications, research grants, and recognition awards to advance the field of educational development.

Product overview

The POD Network is North America's largest educational development community organization (not a software product company) offering a membership-based professional development platform. The core offerings include annual membership ($105-$150/year) providing access to conferences, publications, grants, awards, webinars, and networking. Key products include the Annual POD Network Conference (50+ year tradition, 1000+ attendees), Institute for New Educational Developers (INED), PODLive monthly webinars, Educational Developer Competency Toolkit, POD Connects peer mentorship groups, POD Scholarly Reads discussion series, and the Centers & Programs Directory (1,289 teaching centers). Publications include To Improve the Academy Journal (since 1982), Journal of Diversity and Equity in Educational Development, plus various papers, guides, and the Centering Centers podcast. The grants program supports research, DEI initiatives, and career development with funding up to $1,800 for travel assistance. Affinity groups provide community for members of marginalized groups with monthly gatherings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PODLive: Interactive 60-minute online webinar sessions designed to support educational developers across institutional types and career stages.
• POD Connects
• POD Scholarly Reads

Products and services

• Individual Membership Annual individual membership in the POD Network giving educational developers, faculty, and graduate students access to member benefits, publications, webinars, and community participation.
• Institutional Membership

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 1,700 members representing every US state and more than 30 countries
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Temple University Center for the Advancement of TeachingcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Temple University's Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) co-hosts the 2026 Institute for New Educational Developers (INED), a 4-day virtual conference for new educational developers in the field. POD Network partners with CAT to deliver this professional development program for emerging practitioners.
• OneHEminorOthersOneHE is a global platform for professional development that POD Network members receive access to as part of their membership benefits. This provides POD members with additional professional development resources beyond POD's own offerings.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• International Society for the Study of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (ISSOTL): ISSOTL is the closest mission-aligned peer: an international scholarly society focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in higher education, with annual conferences, publications, and grants serving faculty developers and educational developers — overlapping directly with POD Network's core audience and offerings.
• Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U): AAC&U is a higher-education membership association serving institutional and individual members focused on undergraduate teaching, faculty development, and inclusive excellence — POD Network explicitly partners with AAC&U to co-deliver the Organizational Development Institute, making it a direct program-level peer.
• NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising: NACADA is a large membership-based professional association serving a distinct functional community within higher education (academic advising), with annual conferences, publications, awards, and affinity groups — a near-analogue operating model to POD Network applied to a different higher-ed professional niche.
• Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE): ASHE is a professional association for higher-education researchers, faculty, administrators, and policy analysts, offering conferences and publications focused on postsecondary institutions — comparable in audience (higher-education professionals) and operating model (membership, annual conference, journal).

Regional players

• Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA): SEDA is the UK's primary professional association for staff and educational developers in higher education, offering conferences, publications, and accreditation — the regional (UK) counterpart to POD Network and a directly comparable mission in a different geography.
• Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA): HERDSA is the Australasian professional association for higher-education teaching, learning, and academic development, with annual conferences, a journal, and grants — a regional peer to POD Network serving a closely parallel member base across Australia, New Zealand, and the Asia-Pacific.

Broad incumbents

• EDUCAUSE: EDUCAUSE is a large, established higher-education membership association serving IT, learning, and academic-technology leaders with conferences, publications, and research — a broader incumbent that overlaps POD Network's territory on the teaching-and-learning side while extending well beyond educational development.
• American Educational Research Association (AERA): AERA is the largest US scholarly association for education researchers, with annual meetings and journals spanning K–12 and higher education — a much broader incumbent that includes educational-development research as one slice of its portfolio, comparable in publication/conference model but far larger and more general.

Emerging players

• OneHE: OneHE is a global online professional-development platform for higher educators offering on-demand courses and resources; POD Network actually bundles OneHE access as a member benefit, signaling that OneHE is an adjacent (and partially substitute) emerging player in the same educational-development market.

Others

• American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE): AAACE is a US-based membership association supporting professionals in adult and continuing education, including faculty-development-adjacent roles; thematically related as a professional-development association in education, though its primary audience differs from POD Network's higher-ed educational-developer core.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/PODNetworkHQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/PODNetworkHQ
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/podnetworkhq
• Instagraminstagram.com/PODNetworkHQ

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network