Acceleration Studies Foundation

Name

Acceleration Studies Foundation

Legal name

Acceleration Studies Foundation

Website

https://accelerating.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Strategic Foresight Education and Research

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172), Educational Support Services (611710)

akta.pro primary industry

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI)

Keywords

• Foresight education
• Acceleration studies
• Strategic foresight consulting
• Futurist community programs
• Evolutionary development research

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Gatos

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Donations and Grants: As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, ASF operates primarily through tax-deductible donations. The organization has a Foundation Fund where donations are invested using a permanent portfolio strategy, with only 80% of interest spent annually to ensure perpetual growth. They accept one-time gifts and have an endowment.
2. Consulting and Services: ASF President John Smart and ASF's consulting arm, Acceleration Associates, provide keynotes, talks, seminars, workshops, and consulting services to organizations seeking to understand and manage accelerating change.
3. Conference Revenue: ASF produces the Accelerating Change conference (held 2003-2005 at Stanford University), which was priced significantly lower than competing conferences (one-third to one-fifth of other leading conferences).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Acceleration Studies Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational foundation that conducts research on accelerating technological change as a universal process and delivers foresight education through online guides, university courses, conferences, community discussion networks, retreats, and a Substack newsletter. It operates through two subsidiaries—Foresight University (education) and the Evo-Devo Institute (research)—to advance an evo-devo framework for personal, organizational, and societal foresight.

Product overview

Acceleration Studies Foundation (ASF) is a nonprofit research and educational organization offering a portfolio of foresight education products and community programs. Core offerings include The Foresight Guide (a comprehensive online and print guide to professional foresight methodology), the Future Salon Network (a global network of monthly in-person discussion communities), and Fusion Retreats (annual personal foresight gatherings). ASF also produces the Accelerating Change Conference series held at Stanford University, develops academic courses including Foresight Development (undergraduate) and Technology Acceleration (graduate) offered through partner universities, and maintains the Good Foresight Newsletter via Substack. The organization runs the Evo-Devo Universe/Evo-Devo Institute research community exploring universal evolutionary developmental processes, and conducted the Metaverse Roadmap research project on 3D web futures. These products and services are interconnected through ASF's focus on acceleration-aware, evidence-based foresight education and research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Foresight Guide A comprehensive online and print guide covering professional foresight methodology, models, methods, case studies, and resources for improving personal, team, organizational, societal, global, and universal futures, written from an acceleration-aware, evo-devo, and evidence-based perspective. Free online at ForesightGuide.com with paid print/digital editions.
• Future Salon Network A global network of independently run, monthly in-person discussion and support communities focused on future-oriented thinking, scientific, technological, and social change topics, free and open to the public in 10+ cities including Bay Area, Boulder, DC, LA, NYC, Seattle, Beijing, Manila, Munich, and Singapore.
• Fusion Retreats

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Foresight UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015ASF's educational subsidiary is Foresight University (training in adaptive foresight, est. 2015). They publish The Foresight Guide and produce the Good Foresight newsletter. ASF and Foresight University work together on foresight education and outreach.
• Evo-Devo Institute (EDI)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2008ASF is now a research subsidiary of the Evo-Devo Institute (research in complexity, change and adaptiveness, est. 2008). The research community evolved from Acceleration Studies Foundation to EDI, exploring universal evolutionary and developmental processes. ASF's research continues within this framework.
• University of Advancing Technology (UAT)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2007ASF developed a Foresight Development undergraduate course, first taught Fall 2007 at UAT in Tempe, AZ. The course covers personal foresight skills and general foresight education, with materials available on a creative commons-licensed wiki.
• Metaverse RoadmapminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2006A cross-industry foresight project (2006-2007) that explored the 20-year future of mirror worlds, virtual worlds, AR, and lifelogs. ASF ran this project to provide technology and societal foresight work.
• University of Houston Foresight MS ProgramminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerASF developed a Technology Acceleration graduate course, first drafted and taught in Summer 2015 at University of Houston's Foresight MS program.
• Global Foresight LinkedIn GroupminorOthersASF hosts and moderates a Global Foresight LinkedIn group with over 5,050 members for business foresight discussions and community networking.
• Association of Professional FuturistsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerASF recommends joining this nonprofit global membership community of students, researchers, educators, and employers working to expand and professionalize foresight practice.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Future Today Institute: Future Today Institute is a strategic foresight firm producing annual Tech Trends reports and advising enterprises and governments. It is an emerging commercial counterpart to ASF, with stronger monetization but narrower theoretical depth.
• Singularity University: Singularity University focuses on exponential technologies and their impact, offering executive education and corporate programs. It shares ASF's accelerating-change thematic focus but operates at much larger scale with a corporate training orientation.

Direct peers

• The Millennium Project: The Millennium Project is a global participatory futures research organization producing State of the Future reports and managing a global Node network. It directly parallels ASF in futures research methodology, global foresight nodes, and policy-oriented deliverables.
• Long Now Foundation: Long Now is a non-profit foundation focused on long-term thinking, civilization-scale projects (10,000-year clock, Rosetta Project), and fostering slower, deeper thinking about the future. It shares ASF's emphasis on long-horizon foresight education and counteracting short-termism.
• Foresight Institute: Foresight Institute is a non-profit advancing beneficial transformative technologies (nanotech, AI, biotech) and runs workshops, fellowships, and conferences. It overlaps ASF in nurturing foresight communities and advancing transformative-technology research, though with a different domain focus.
• World Futures Studies Federation: WFSF is a global NGO promoting futures studies and foresight research across academia and policy. It overlaps ASF's mission in advancing futures scholarship and convening a global community of futurists and researchers.
• Institute for the Future: IFTF is a non-profit futures research organization producing foresight methods, forecasts, and signals for governments, businesses, and educators. It is the most direct functional peer to ASF, operating in the same foresight/strategic-foresight education and research category.
• Association of Professional Futurists: APF is a non-profit global membership community of futurists referenced by ASF as a partner organization. Both organizations focus on advancing foresight practice, professionalizing futurists, and convening practitioners across organizations.

Others

• International Society for the Systems Sciences: ISSS is a global scholarly society advancing systems theory, cybernetics, and complexity science. It is thematically related to ASF's evo-devo/complex adaptive systems research framework, providing an academic counterpart and convening venue.

Broad incumbents

• Club of Rome: Club of Rome is an established global think tank publishing influential long-horizon reports on limits to growth, sustainability, and civilization trajectories. It is a broader incumbent comparable to ASF in advancing long-term, systems-level thinking about humanity's future.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubevimeo.com/channels/62784
• Facebookfacebook.com/pages/Future-Salon/235086452515
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/groups/3037

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries2 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 Acceleration Studies Foundation