American Council On Consumer Interests

What American Council On Consumer Interests does

American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI) is a 501c3 nonprofit professional membership organization founded in 1953 (originally as the Council on Consumer Information, renamed in 1969). It serves academic researchers, educators, graduate students, and consumer-policy professionals across more than a dozen countries, with the stated mission of promoting consumer interest through policy-relevant research and education. ACCI operates without proprietary technology products, relying instead on third-party platforms including Wiley Online Library for journal distribution, MemberClicks for membership administration, and QuestionPro for survey software.

Its core offerings are the peer-reviewed Journal of Consumer Affairs (JCA, published since 1967 with a 2023 Impact Factor of 2.5), an annual multidisciplinary conference rotating through U.S. cities, a portfolio of 15+ named awards and fellowships sponsored in part by FINRA, NEFE, CFP Board, and the Kansas State University Foundation's Morse Consumer Movement Archives Endowment, a 12-month Early-Career Professional Development Mentorship Program, and a niche job board. ACCI generates revenue through four streams: recurring membership dues (Professional $125, Student $25, Retiree $55, Organizational $500 per year, with reduced rates for lower-income nations), $125 journal submission fees (waived for members), conference registration, and conference sponsorships. The organization is governed by an eleven-member Board of Directors and managed by an Executive Director; it maintains mailing addresses in Britton, SD and Tarpon Springs, FL.

Name

American Council On Consumer Interests

Legal name

American Council on Consumer Interests

Website

https://consumerinterests.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1953

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

American Council on Consumer Interests is a 501c3 nonprofit professional membership organization, founded in 1953, that serves academic researchers, educators, and consumer-policy professionals worldwide through the peer-reviewed Journal of Consumer Affairs, an annual conference, mentorship, and awards programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Association and Academic Membership Services

NAICS

Educational Services (611), Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192)

akta.pro primary industry

Association & Society Conference Management (Nonprofit, Professional Bodies) (THAHACAA)

Keywords

• Consumer policy research
• Professional membership organization
• Academic journal publishing
• Annual conference services
• Consumer economics education

Headquarters

HQ city

Britton

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Primary revenue stream from annual membership fees. Professional members pay $125/year, students pay $25/year, retirees pay $55/year, and organizational memberships cost $500/year. Reduced rates are available for members in lower-income nations per World Bank classification.
2. Journal Submission Fees: Authors pay a $125 submission fee to the Journal of Consumer Affairs. This fee is waived if any author is a current ACCI member. Reduced submission fees are available for authors from lower-income nations.
3. Conference Registration: Revenue generated from annual conference registrations, though specific pricing details are not publicly disclosed.
4. Conference Sponsorships: Sponsorship opportunities for the annual conference provide revenue through various sponsorship tiers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

ACCI is a 501c3 nonprofit professional membership organization that advances consumer interests through peer-reviewed research dissemination, an annual multidisciplinary conference, and awards programs. Its core offerings include membership subscriptions (Professional, Student, Retiree, Organizational tiers), the Journal of Consumer Affairs published via Wiley, the ACCI Annual Conference, awards recognizing research and education excellence, an Early-Career Mentorship Program, a Job Board, and Consumer Interests Annual conference proceedings.

Product overview

ACCI is a membership-based nonprofit organization (501c3) that does not offer a commercial technology product or SaaS platform. Its core offerings are professional services including: the Journal of Consumer Affairs (JCA) - a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary journal published by Wiley; Annual Conferences for presenting research on consumer and family economic issues; an Awards Program recognizing research and service; an Early-Career Professional Development Mentorship Program; a Job Board for the consumer interests field; and various membership tiers. ACCI operates through third-party platforms including Wiley for journal publishing, QuestionPro for surveys, and MemberClicks for membership management.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Journal of Consumer Affairs (JCA) The flagship peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal published by ACCI since 1967, featuring cutting-edge scholarship on consumer and family economic issues, consumer behavior, and implications of business practices and government policies for consumers' well-being. Distributed through Wiley Online Library to institutional subscribers and ACCI members worldwide.
• ACCI Annual Conference A multidisciplinary conference where high-quality scholarship on consumer and family economic issues is presented and discussed, held annually in various U.S. locations (2027: Atlanta, GA; 2026: Long Beach, CA; 2025: Pittsburgh, PA). Includes registration fees, sponsorship opportunities, and a venue partner contract.
• Membership Programs Annual membership tiers including Professional ($125/year), Retiree ($55/year), Student ($25/year), and Organizational ($500/year) with access to journal, conferences, awards, voting rights, and other member benefits. Reduced rates available for members in lower-income nations.
• Early-Career Professional Development Mentorship Program A 12-month mentorship program pairing early-career professionals with experienced mentors in consumer science, including virtual orientation, conference meetings, and professional development workshops.
• ACCI Awards Program Various awards recognizing research, service, and education in consumer interests, including the Distinguished Fellow Award, Richard L.D. Morse Awards (Applied, Early-Career, Mid-Career), CFP Board Financial Planning Paper Award, NEFE Paper Award, Robert O. Herrmann Dissertation Award, Stewart M. Lee Consumer Education Award, and student conference scholarships.
• ACCI Job Board Online job board for posting and searching positions in the consumer interests field, with free access for job seekers and discounted pricing for organizational members (50% discount, $50 per posting).
• JCA Special Issues Themed issues of the Journal of Consumer Affairs focusing on specific topics such as equity and resilience, emerging technologies, and well-being of older adults.
• Consumer Interests Annual (CIA) Conference proceedings containing papers and abstracts from past ACCI Annual Conferences, available in searchable PDFs from 1957 to present.

Quantifiable outcome

• Journal Impact Factor 2.5 (2023), ranking 154/302 Business and 152/597 Economics
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers11 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

Integration1 record

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Wiley (Wiley Online Library)coreTechnology or IntegrationACCI's Journal of Consumer Affairs is published through Wiley's online platform. Wiley provides hosting, distribution, and digital access management for the journal, making it available to institutional subscribers and ACCI members worldwide.
• FINRA Investor Education FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFINRA Investor Education Foundation sponsors the annual Undergraduate Student Poster Competition, providing recognition and prizes for undergraduate research in consumer-related topics.
• National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNEFE sponsors the NEFE Paper Award ($1,500 and certificate), with awardees featured in NEFE's digest publication distributed to approximately 6,000 subscribers including extension agents.
• CFP BoardcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCFP Board established and funds the CFP Board's ACCI Financial Planning Paper Award, recognizing scholarly papers on financial planning issues.
• Consumer Movement Archives at Kansas State UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Consumer Movement Archives (CMA) at Kansas State University Libraries is the premiere research collection documenting consumer advocacy in the United States. CMA was established by Richard L. D. Morse and supports ACCI's awards programs.
• Consumers UnionminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerConsumers Union provided the initial $7,000 grant in 1953 that enabled ACCI's founding planning activities, recruitment of members, publication of newsletters, and organization of the first annual conference.
• Embassy Suites by Hilton Atlanta at Centennial Olympic ParkminorOthersThe conference hotel for ACCI 2027 Annual Conference in Atlanta, GA. ACCI has negotiated a room rate of $219 + tax for conference attendees.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Consumer Federation of America: CFA is an advocacy-oriented consumer federation with consumer policy research output. Its consumer-policy mission aligns closely with ACCI's focus on consumer well-being, though CFA's primary mode is advocacy rather than peer-reviewed academic publishing.
• Financial Planning Association: FPA is a practitioner-facing professional association for financial planners with practitioner-focused content and continuing education. It is comparable to ACCI as a professional society in the financial-services space and through its CFP Board-aligned ecosystem, though its members are practitioners rather than researchers.

Broad incumbents

• American Economic Association: AEA is the largest academic economics association, publisher of the American Economic Review and host of the AEA annual meeting. JCA's economics ranking (152/597) places ACCI in overlapping scholarly territory, and AEA serves a similarly structured academic membership.
• American Council on Education: ACE is a broad higher-education policy association representing U.S. colleges and universities. While not consumer-research focused, ACE's higher-ed policy advocacy and university-institutional membership model are structurally comparable to ACCI's academic-society structure.
• American Marketing Association: AMA is the largest professional association for marketers, publishing multiple journals (including JM, JMR, JCR) and hosting major academic conferences. It is a broad incumbent whose consumer-research editorial interests overlap with ACCI's niche focus on consumer policy and well-being.

Direct peers

• Academy of Financial Services: AFS is an interdisciplinary academic association of financial planning, insurance, and personal finance scholars, publishing the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning and holding an annual conference. Strong overlap with ACCI in financial-capability and consumer-finance research, and in conference-driven academic society model.
• International Association for Research in Economic Psychology: IAREP is an international scholarly society studying economic psychology and consumer behavior, publishing the Journal of Economic Psychology and running an annual conference. Its mission, journal-conference-membership structure, and international membership base closely parallel ACCI's.
• Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals: SOCAP is a professional association for consumer/customer experience leaders in corporations, focused on consumer affairs practice rather than academic research. Its consumer-centric mission, corporate membership model, and conference programming make it a thematic and structural peer to ACCI.
• Association for Consumer Research: ACR is the leading international association dedicated to consumer behavior research, publishing the Journal of Consumer Research and hosting annual conferences. It directly parallels ACCI in mission, membership model, journal-conference-association structure, and academic consumer-research audience.
• Society for Consumer Psychology: Division 23 of the American Psychological Association focused on consumer psychology research. Comparable to ACCI as an academic society publishing a peer-reviewed journal, running an annual conference, and serving a researcher-educator member base studying consumer behavior.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ACCI_ORG
• Facebookfacebook.com/AmericanCouncilonConsumerInterests
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/consumerinterests

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles17 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about American Council On Consumer Interests