NCFDD

What NCFDD does

NCFDD (National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity) is a private U.S.-based faculty development organization that delivers structured coaching programs, online courses, and peer-community resources to graduate students, post-docs, faculty, department chairs, and academic administrators. Its flagship is the 10-week Faculty Success Program, complemented by the Department Chair Success Program, Post-Tenure Pathfinders, and shorter courses covering publishing, grant funding, teaching in the age of AI, and dissertation writing. Delivery runs through a web-based platform at members.ncfdd.org featuring a proprietary WriteNow productivity tracking system, a member-only community with weekly discussions and rank-specific peer groups, and a curated content library of webinars, guides, and on-demand modules. Live and on-demand campus workshops, facilitated by NCFDD-certified tenured faculty, serve as both standalone offerings and institutional entry points.

The business model is a hybrid B2B/B2C subscription-plus-program structure. Institutions purchase annual campus-wide partnerships with customized pricing based on size and program scope, while individuals at non-partner institutions buy $495/year memberships or $495 individual course registrations (with 5-15% bulk discounts). Over 95% of Faculty Success Program participants are institutionally sponsored. The company reports 300+ institutional partners, 200,000+ faculty supported, and 15,000+ FSP alumni, with documented outcomes including 90-96% faculty retention at partner institutions (Carnegie Mellon, Emory) and 94% reported increase in writing productivity. Growth has been achieved with no disclosed outside funding, operating geographies limited to the United States, and a marketing strategy centered on thought leadership content, free downloadable resources, and a referral-driven community.

Name

NCFDD

Legal name

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity

Website

https://ncfdd.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

NCFDD (National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity) is a private U.S. organization that delivers structured coaching programs, online courses, and a peer community to graduate students, faculty, department chairs, and academic administrators across 300+ U.S. institutional partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Professional Development

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (611430), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Course Bundle Subscriptions & Learning Membership Marketplaces (EDAFAIAI)

Keywords

• Faculty development
• Higher education coaching
• Writing productivity training
• Academic leadership programs
• Institutional faculty partnerships

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Institutional Partnership Membership: Colleges and universities pay an annual fee for campus-wide access to NCFDD's full suite of resources for all faculty, postdocs, and graduate students. Partnerships are annual with renewal options, and institutions can add programs (FSP, CSP, workshops, mentoring series) as their priorities evolve. Pricing is customized based on institutional size and package scope.
2. Individual Membership: Faculty at non-partner institutions pay an annual subscription fee of $495/year for access to the full NCFDD resource library, webinars, writing challenges, community forums, and courses.
3. Course Registration Fees: Individual courses such as Teaching Toolkit in the Age of AI, Building Your Publishing Pipeline, and Rethinking Your Research Funding are priced at $495 per participant. Bulk discounts are available for institutional group registrations (5-10 faculty: 5% off; 11-20: 10% off; 21-30: 15% off).
4. Program Enrollment (FSP, CSP, Post-Tenure Pathfinders): Structured multi-week programs (Faculty Success Program, Department Chair Success Program, Post-Tenure Pathfinders) are sold at the program level, often sponsored by institutions. Over 95% of FSP participants are supported by their department, college, university, or professional development funds.
5. 14-Day Writing Challenge: The 14-Day Writing Challenge is offered free of charge as a lead-generation and community-building program accessible to all faculty and graduate students regardless of membership status.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

NCFDD delivers structured faculty development and academic leadership programs through a web-based virtual learning platform. Its flagship offering is the 10-week Faculty Success Program that combines coaching, accountability groups, and peer support to raise faculty productivity, writing output, and retention. The company also sells the Department Chair Success Program, Post-Tenure Pathfinders, shorter four-week courses (Building Your Publishing Pipeline, Teaching Toolkit in the Age of AI, Rethinking Your Research Funding), the free 14-Day Writing Challenge, and a Dissertation Success Curriculum, sold via annual institutional partnerships for campus-wide access and $495/year individual memberships.

Product overview

NCFDD is a faculty development and success organization offering a platform-plus-programs model. The core offering includes the Faculty Success Program (a 10-week coaching-intensive bootcamp) and Department Chair Success Program, supplemented by short-term courses (Building Your Publishing Pipeline, Teaching Toolkit in the Age of AI, Rethinking Your Research Funding, 14-Day Writing Challenge, Dissertation Success Curriculum), workshops (Campus Workshops, Rethinking Mentoring Workshop Series), and membership tiers (Institutional Partnership, Individual Membership). All offerings are supported by the NCFDD Community platform featuring Core Curriculum resources, WriteNow productivity tracking, and peer accountability tools. Programs serve graduate students through senior faculty across research universities, liberal arts colleges, and professional schools, with over 300 institutional partners.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Faculty Success Program A structured 10-week virtual coaching program that helps faculty increase productivity, establish sustainable writing habits, and maintain work-life balance through expert coaching, accountability groups, and peer support.
• Department Chair Success Program A 10-week immersive virtual program designed to equip department chairs with leadership skills, strategies, and peer support to navigate challenges of academic leadership while maintaining their own professional growth.
• Post-Tenure Pathfinders A 12-week virtual program for recently tenured and mid-career faculty providing space to reflect, explore possibilities, and build support networks to move confidently into the next phase of their academic careers.
• Building Your Publishing Pipeline A four-week online course that helps faculty organize writing projects across different stages, identify where work stalls, and make intentional decisions about project prioritization using a pipeline management approach.
• Teaching Toolkit in the Age of AI A four-week virtual course helping faculty make clear, sustainable choices about teaching, assessment, feedback, and workload with practical tools including a complete course syllabus.
• Rethinking Your Research Funding Course A four-week virtual course helping faculty develop sustainable funding strategies beyond federal grants, including foundation, industry, and local government funding sources.
• 14-Day Writing Challenge A free structured two-week writing program helping faculty develop consistent writing habits through daily 30-minute writing commitments, goal setting, tracking, and peer accountability.
• Dissertation Success Curriculum A curriculum for advanced graduate students providing structure, strategies, and community support to overcome perfectionism, procrastination, and isolation while completing their dissertations.
• Campus Workshops Interactive virtual or in-person workshops on productivity, mentoring, time management, and writing, available in customizable formats for institutional needs.
• Rethinking Mentoring Workshop Series A multi-part workshop series designed to help campuses modernize their mentoring approach with three interactive workshops, a mentoring strategy session, assessment tools, and an online community space.
• Institutional Partnership An annual campus-wide membership providing all faculty, postdocs, and graduate students access to NCFDD's full suite of resources including Core Curriculum, webinars, courses, writing challenges, and the NCFDD Community.
• Individual Membership Annual individual membership at $495/year providing access to NCFDD's full library of faculty and graduate student development resources including webinars, writing challenges, and private discussion forums.

Quantifiable outcome

• 96% faculty retention rate among Carnegie Mellon University faculty who completed FSP
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers25 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Harvard's Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNCFDD collaborated with Harvard's COACHE program to develop the white paper 'Redefining Mentoring in Higher Education,' which explores why current mentoring systems often fall short and what institutions can do to improve them. This collaboration informs the Rethinking Mentoring Workshop Series and provides national benchmarking data on mentoring gaps across campuses.

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• edX: edX offers university-level courses and credential programs from top institutions and serves both individuals and enterprises through its edX for Business offering. It is a broader incumbent in higher education online learning that overlaps with NCFDD's market when universities make platform-wide learning decisions.
• LinkedIn Learning: LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) provides an extensive library of professional development video courses covering business, technology, and creative skills. It is often procured at the institutional level as a default professional development platform, competing with NCFDD for the same budget line.
• Coursera: Coursera is a large-scale online learning platform serving individuals, businesses, and universities (via Coursera for Campus). While it offers a much broader catalog of courses, it competes for the same institutional professional development dollars that fund NCFDD partnerships.

Emerging players

• Teachable: Teachable is a course platform that allows creators to build, market, and sell online courses and coaching. It overlaps with NCFDD's technology stack and represents the kind of low-cost, self-serve alternative individual faculty could choose over NCFDD's structured cohort programs.
• Thinkific: Thinkific is a course-creation and membership platform used by individual creators and small businesses. It is comparable to the underlying technology layer NCFDD uses to deliver its courses and memberships, and increasingly enables individual faculty to launch competing programs.

Direct peers

• Academic Partnerships: Academic Partnerships helps universities recruit, retain, and support adult and online learners through program design, marketing, and faculty support services. It serves the same institutional buyers as NCFDD and overlaps in faculty development and online learning support.
• Magna Publications: Magna Publications produces online seminars, courses, and resources focused on teaching, learning, and professional development in higher education. It targets a similar institutional and individual faculty audience and competes for the same professional development budget as NCFDD.
• Academic Impressions: Academic Impressions provides on-demand professional development, conferences, and training programs specifically for higher education administrators and faculty. It is the closest direct competitor to NCFDD, serving the same institutional buyers with similar cohort-based and on-demand offerings.

Others

• EDUCAUSE: EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit higher education technology association that provides research, conferences, and professional development for IT and academic leaders. It is an ecosystem peer that helps set the agenda on faculty development and is often co-marketed or co-attended with NCFDD content.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Chronicle is the leading news and information source for U.S. higher education professionals and operates a Chronicle Careers and professional development arm. It reaches the same institutional buyers and faculty audience as NCFDD and serves as an alternative channel for thought leadership.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/thencfdd
• Facebookfacebook.com/NCFDD
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ncfdd
• Instagraminstagram.com/thencfdd

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 NCFDD