Center for Inspired Teaching

Name

Center for Inspired Teaching

Legal name

Center for Inspired Teaching

Website

https://inspiredteaching.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Teacher Professional Development Services

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (61143)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Standards Alignment & Curriculum Mapping (State/National) (EDAJAFAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

K–12 Instructional Design & Curriculum Development Services (EDAGAKAA), Curriculum & Pedagogy Training (Play-Based, Emergent, Literacy/Numeracy) (EDACAIAE)

Keywords

• Teacher professional development
• Education nonprofit services
• Social emotional learning
• Improvisation based pedagogy
• Teacher training programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Individual Donations: Individual donors contribute to support the organization's mission. Long list of named donors from the community.
2. Institutional Foundation Grants: Foundations including J.B. & M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, Philip L. Graham Fund, England Family Foundation, Ferris Family Foundation provide grant funding.
3. Government Arts and Education Funding: DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and Learn24 (Office of Out of School Time Grants, DC Deputy Mayor for Education) provide government funding.
4. School Partnership Fees: Customized professional development for schools priced at $2800 for up to 3 hours and $5000 for a full day. Sliding scale available for schools serving low-income communities. Resources remain free to teachers.
5. Corporate Sponsorships: Corporate supporters including Akin Gump, PNC Foundation, Cox Family Farms, K&G Law LLC provide financial support.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Center for Inspired Teaching delivers improvisation-based professional development for PreK-12 teachers through live workshops, an annual fellowship, customized school partnerships, and a free digital resource library of lessons, guidebooks, and toolkits. It also runs direct student programs (Real World History, Speak Truth) and an award-winning weekly newsletter and podcast (Hooray for Monday). All resources to individual teachers are provided free of charge, funded by foundations, government arts and education grants, corporate sponsors, and individual donors.

Product overview

Center for Inspired Teaching is a social change nonprofit organization offering a comprehensive suite of teacher professional development programs and student-facing resources, all centered on an improvisation-based approach to education. The core offering includes the Inspired Teaching Institute (free interactive workshops), Teaching with Improvisation Fellowship (annual selective program), and School Partnerships (customized professional development). Supporting these are digital resources including Hooray for Monday (award-winning weekly newsletter and podcast), the Ready-to-Use Lessons & Activities library, and Guidebooks & Toolkits. The organization also operates direct student programs: Real World History (inquiry-based history course) and Speak Truth (student-led civic discourse). Key frameworks include the ABCDE of Learner Needs and the 4 I's model (Intellect, Inquiry, Imagination, Integrity). The Curiosity Challenge and Instigator of Thought Challenge provide structured year-long engagement programs. All resources are offered at no cost to teachers, supported by institutional donors and foundations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Teaching with Improvisation Fellowship A selective annual professional development fellowship for PreK-12 teachers in Washington, DC. Kicks off with a 4-day Institute, followed by quarterly mini-Institutes and site-based coaching throughout the school year. Fellows learn the 5 Rules of Inspired Teaching Improv and operate on a train-the-trainers model that spreads the approach school-wide.
• Inspired Teaching Institute Free, improvisation-based professional development workshops for teachers and school leaders, offered both in-person and online. Sessions are fully interactive with cameras on and mics unmuted, focusing on experiential learning.
• School Partnerships Customized school-wide professional development for groups of teachers, administrators, parents, or whole schools. Includes feedback and accountability training, community building, and tailored courses. Priced at $2,800 for up to 3 hours and $5,000 for a full day, with sliding scale for schools serving low-income communities.
• Hooray for Monday Award-winning weekly professional learning newsletter and podcast that supports teachers in framing current events and classroom challenges as learning opportunities. Distributed via email and on Spotify/SoundCloud.
• Ready-to-Use Lessons & Activities A free digital library of classroom activities organized by subject (Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle School, Secondary, Arts, Math, Science, PE, ELA, Social Studies/History) and grade level, aligned with Common Core and CASEL standards.
• Guidebooks & Toolkits Published guides including the ABCDE of Learner Needs Guidebook, Early Childhood ABCDE Guidebook, Speak Truth Guidebook, Inspired Breathing Guidebook, Resilient Children Handbook, and Curiosity Challenge materials for teachers, parents, and school leaders.
• ABCDE of Learner Needs An award-winning social-emotional learning framework identifying core needs of Autonomy, Belonging, Competence, Developmental Appropriateness, and Engagement (plus Fun). Selected for the HundrED Global Collection 2024 from more than 3,000 applicants worldwide.
• Real World History A credit-bearing course for DC public, public charter, and independent high school students that teaches history through inquiry, hands-on understanding, and internships at museums, archives, and historic sites such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Phillips Collection, Ford's Theatre, and the DC Public Library.
• Speak Truth A student-led civic discourse program teaching young people to engage across differences with curiosity and respect. Students discuss controversial topics including gentrification, voting rights, criminal justice, and mental health.
• Curiosity Challenge A year-long engagement program sharing exclusive interviews, prompts, and tools to support participants in exploring and understanding new things about themselves, their community, and the wider world.
• Instigator of Thought Challenge

Quantifiable outcome

• 100% of participants report sessions as useful and relevant for their work
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• The Phillips CollectioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner institution for Real World History program. Hosted student community exhibition using Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series. Students conducted oral histories and created written explanations.
• DC Public LibrarycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStudent oral history projects from Real World History are archived in DIG DC archives for public access.
• National Museum of African American History and CulturecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStudents in Real World History program interview public historians at the museum and learn about the power of objects in historical storytelling.
• Ford's TheatrecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternship site for Real World History students providing experiential learning opportunities.
• AshokamajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAleta Margolis is an Ashoka Fellow. Inspired Teaching participates in Ashoka events including Skoll World Forum panel on educating changemakers.
• HundrEDmajorGTM or Marketing PartnerAleta Margolis serves as HundrED Ambassador. ABCDE of Learner Needs selected for HundrED Global Collection 2024 from 3,000+ applicants.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Edutopia (George Lucas Educational Foundation): Foundation producing free digital resources, articles, and videos on K-12 best practices for educators. Comparable as a free-resource-driven teacher PD brand with strong content marketing and a complementary media/community model.
• Facing History and Ourselves: Nonprofit that delivers teacher professional development, classroom resources, and school partnerships focused on civic education, history, and social-emotional learning. Directly comparable as a mission-driven PD provider serving PreK-12 teachers with a content-rich curriculum library and school-embedded programming.
• New Leaders: Nonprofit that develops school leaders and teacher leaders through residencies, fellowships, and PD programs. Comparable as a mission-aligned organization targeting instructional leadership and engagement-based school transformation, with similar cohort-based fellowship models.
• Teaching Channel: Digital platform offering video-based professional development for K-12 teachers. Comparable in providing accessible, content-rich teacher PD with both free resources and paid learning experiences, though delivery is more online- and video-centric.
• EL Education: Nonprofit that partners with K-12 schools to transform teaching practice through deeper learning, providing PD, curriculum, and a network of demonstration schools. Comparable as an engagement-based school model with embedded teacher professional learning and a charter-school-adjacent footprint.
• Big Picture Learning: Nonprofit that partners with schools to reimagine teaching and learning through student-centered, real-world project work. Comparable as an engagement-based school transformation nonprofit with PD services and a network of partner schools.
• PBLWorks (Buck Institute for Education): Nonprofit that trains teachers in project-based learning pedagogy through workshops, fellowships, and school partnerships. Closely comparable as a teacher PD specialist with proprietary frameworks, gold-standard workshops, and a mix of free resources and paid services.
• National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Nonprofit that advances accomplished teaching through certification, standards, and teacher support programs. Comparable as a mission-aligned teacher PD organization with frameworks, certification pathways, and a national footprint.

Broad incumbents

• Relay Graduate School of Education: Graduate school and PD provider offering teacher and leader preparation programs with embedded clinical training. Comparable as a teacher development organization targeting school-embedded practitioner growth, though operating at significantly larger scale and as a degree-granting institution.
• TNTP (The New Teacher Project): Large national nonprofit providing teacher training, instructional support, and district consulting. Overlaps with Inspired Teaching on teacher PD and instructional leadership but operates at significantly larger scale across multiple program lines.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/InspireTeach
• YouTubesoundcloud.com/inspiredteaching
• Facebookfacebook.com/inspiredteaching
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/center-for-inspired-teaching
• Instagraminstagram.com/inspiredteaching

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries1 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 Center for Inspired Teaching