NACE

Name

NACE

Legal name

National Association of Colleges and Employers

Website

https://naceweb.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1956

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Bethlehem

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership fees structured in tiered pricing based on the number of individuals covered within an organization. Membership provides access to all member benefits including free webinars, data reports, mentoring programs, and discounts on events and certifications.
2. Publications and Research Reports: Sale of research reports, surveys, and benchmarking data including the Salary Survey, Job Outlook reports, Internship & Co-op Reports, and Recruiting Benchmarks Reports. Prices range from $89 to $510 for individual reports.
3. Professional Development Programs: Revenue from certification programs (30-Hour Career Coaching Institute at $1,800-$2,500), coaching certification modules, workshops, and multi-day institutes like the Management Leadership Institute.
4. Events and Webinars: Fees from live webinars ($89 per session), virtual events, the annual NACE Conference & Expo, and specialized programs. Some webinars are offered free to members.
5. Store Products: Sale of various educational products, on-demand webinars, courses, podcasts, and merchandise through the NACE Store.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) is a nonprofit professional association that connects higher education career services professionals with corporate early-talent recruiters. It sells tiered organizational memberships, proprietary research reports (Job Outlook, Internship & Co-op, Salary Survey), career-readiness frameworks and assessment tools, certification programs, an annual conference, an online learning platform, and the NACE Job Network job board.

Product overview

NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) operates as a professional association platform rather than a single software product. The organization offers an integrated ecosystem of research publications, professional development programs, career readiness frameworks, and networking tools. Core offerings include the NACE Career Readiness Competencies Framework and its associated Competency Assessment Tool, the NACE Learning Platform for online education, and the NACE Job Network for early career talent recruitment. The product suite also includes subscription-based research reports (Job Outlook, Internship & Co-op Report, Student Survey, Compensation Reports), certification programs (Career Coaching Certification with 30-hour and 60-hour tracks), and annual conferences (NACE Conference & Expo, Management Leadership Institute, HBCU Summit). Supporting infrastructure includes the NACE Store for publications and courses, NACE Community for member networking, and various benchmarking tools and survey instruments. The portfolio functions as a platform-plus-modules architecture where membership provides core access to frameworks and community, while individual products (reports, certifications, events) are sold separately or at member discounts.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• 5.6% projected increase in hiring for Class of 2026 versus Class of 2025
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Regional ACE Associations (EACE, MWACE, MPACE, SoACE)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1956NACE works cooperatively with four regional Associations of Colleges and Employers through the Regional ACE Presidents' Council. While NACE is independent and autonomous from these regional bodies, they collaborate on shared initiatives and professional development opportunities for the early talent recruiting community.
• AAC&U (Association of American Colleges and Universities)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNACE partners with AAC&U on surveys and research initiatives including embedding career preparation in experiential learning. The two organizations collaborate on the NACE, AAC&U and SEE Survey to advance shared goals of student career preparation.
• IndeedminorGTM or Marketing PartnerIndeed is a member organization serving the recruiting and job search ecosystem. NACE collaborates with Indeed on research and content initiatives related to early career hiring and job market trends.
• SEE (Survey of Entrepreneurial Minds)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNACE collaborated with AAC&U and SEE on a survey examining embedding career preparation in experiential learning, contributing to research on best practices in career readiness education.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• LinkedIn (Microsoft): Dominant professional networking platform used by NACE members for recruiting; competes broadly for employer recruiting spend and candidate engagement.
• SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management): Largest HR professional association in the U.S.; serves the same corporate-recruiter buyer that NACE targets but with a much broader HR scope and competing events/credentials.
• Indeed: Global job-search marketplace; competes with the NACE Job Network for entry-level postings and is simultaneously a NACE research/GTM partner.

Direct peers

• Handshake: Largest college-to-career marketplace connecting students with employers; both a NACE member and technology partner. Directly competes with the NACE Job Network for early-talent recruiting workflows.
• 12twenty: Career-services data and analytics platform used by universities and employers to track outcomes, recruiting activity, and student engagement—a direct functional competitor to NACE's First-Destination and benchmarking dashboards.
• College Recruiter: Job board and recruiting media company focused on recent graduates and entry-level candidates; competes with the NACE Job Network for the same employer demand-side wallet.
• Symplicity (PeopleGrove): Career-services management platform used by university career centers for job postings, counseling, and employer relations; competes with NACE's member tools and Job Network at the institutional level.

Regional players

• EACE (Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers): Regional association serving colleges and employers in the eastern U.S.; competes with NACE for institutional memberships and employer engagement in its territory.

Others

• AAC&U (Association of American Colleges and Universities): Higher-education association partnering with NACE on career-preppedness research; an adjacent member-based organization serving many of the same institutional buyers.

Emerging players

• GradLeaders: Career-services platform offering outcome tracking, mentor matching, and recruiting tools to universities; overlaps with NACE's outcome-survey and community offerings.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/info
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/55957
• Instagraminstagram.com/NACEOrg
• Pinterestpinterest.com/naceorg
• Xx.com/naceorg

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

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 NACE