What YouthTruth does

YouthTruth is a U.S. non-profit survey and analytics initiative operated under the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), headquartered in South San Francisco and founded in 2008. The organization runs a multi-stakeholder feedback platform that administers surveys to K-12 students, families, and school staff, then pairs the resulting data with advisory services to help schools and districts interpret findings and plan improvements. Its core product, the YouthTruth Survey, covers constructs such as school culture, engagement, emotional and mental health, equity, school safety, and student voice/agency, and it is delivered alongside add-on offerings including Advisory Services and a Client Resource Backpack (digital resource library). A companion content engine publishes research reports, case studies, and guidebooks; most recently, a School Safety, Security & Emergency Preparedness report was issued in February 2026.

The business model blends a sales-led direct engagement model with a B2B2C funder-enabled distribution channel. YouthTruth works directly with school and district administrators (superintendents, district leaders) and offers a client login portal for participating partners; in parallel, foundations and funders can underwrite YouthTruth access for their grantee schools, allowing the organization to enter districts that might not otherwise purchase on a stand-alone basis. Reporting is recurring and tied to multi-year district cycles, with year-over-year trend data presented as a core use case. Revenue is not publicly disclosed and there is no published pricing; the entity is funded through a combination of philanthropic grants and recurring service relationships.

Operationally, YouthTruth reports a cumulative 3,240,624 students surveyed and 831,892 staff and family respondents across 39 U.S. states; named customers include Evergreen Public Schools in Washington. The go-to-market also includes content marketing (research reports, blog, newsletters), organic social (LinkedIn, YouTube), and direct outreach. As an initiative of CEP, there is no venture or private-equity backing; strategic value is governed by philanthropic impact rather than equity returns.

Name

YouthTruth

Legal name

YouthTruth

Website

https://youthtruthsurvey.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Short description

YouthTruth is a U.S. non-profit initiative of the Center for Effective Philanthropy that administers multi-stakeholder student, family, and staff surveys for K-12 schools and districts, paired with advisory services and a digital resource library, and supported by a foundation-funded B2B2C distribution model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Survey Analytics

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Elementary and Secondary Schools (6111), Child and Youth Services (62411)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Youth Mentoring & Positive Youth Development Nonprofits (BPAGADAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Student Response Systems (Clickers & Device-Based Response) (EDAFAGAC)

Keywords

• K-12 student surveys
• Education feedback platform
• School improvement data
• Youth voice analytics
• District survey services

Headquarters

HQ city

South San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. School/District Survey Services: YouthTruth provides survey services to schools and districts, operating as a partner rather than a vendor. The organization appears to charge for survey administration and advisory services.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

YouthTruth operates a survey platform that collects and analyzes feedback from K-12 students, families, and school staff to help schools and districts drive improvement. The core offering consists of multi-stakeholder survey instruments administered at the school or district level, paired with advisory services that help educators interpret data and build action plans. YouthTruth also publishes research reports and case studies derived from its aggregated dataset of over 3.2 million surveyed students across 39 U.S. states.

Product overview

YouthTruth is an education-focused feedback and survey platform that helps schools and districts improve by collecting and analyzing student, family, and staff voices. The core offering consists of the YouthTruth Survey platform and its multi-stakeholder survey instruments (Student, Family, and Staff Surveys). The platform is complemented by Advisory Services for expert interpretation and action planning, and the Client Resource Backpack as a self-service resource library. Research Reports and Case Studies provide additional analytical content. YouthTruth operates as an initiative of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, with offerings designed for both direct school/district partnerships and foundation funders seeking to understand youth experiences in education.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• YouthTruth Survey A survey platform that collects and analyzes feedback from students, families, and school staff to help K-12 schools and districts improve by listening to youth voices.
• Student, Family, and Staff Surveys Multi-stakeholder survey instruments designed to gather comprehensive feedback from students, families, and school staff on their school experiences.
• Advisory Services Expert consultation services that help schools and districts interpret YouthTruth survey data and develop action plans for improvement.
• Client Resource Backpack A digital resource library providing tools, guides, and materials for partner schools and districts to leverage YouthTruth data effectively.

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerYouthTruth is an initiative of the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP). CEP is the parent organization that houses the YouthTruth survey initiative. The President of CEP, Phil Buchanan, is quoted endorsing YouthTruth's approach to empowering foundations with youth voice data.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• CASEL: The leading SEL research and standards organization. While not a survey vendor, CASEL drives the demand for SEL and school-climate measurement that YouthTruth serves, and its district-facing tools partially overlap with YouthTruth's offerings.

Others

• WestEd: A nonprofit education research and development organization serving schools and districts with surveys, evaluations, and technical assistance. Comparable as a mission-driven K-12 research partner rather than a direct survey competitor.
• RAND Corporation: A large nonprofit research institution conducting education policy and school-survey research. Relevant as a producer of comparable student-voice and school-climate research that influences district buying behavior in YouthTruth's category.
• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: A nonprofit foundation working on K-12 improvement and improvement science. Comparable as a peer nonprofit in the K-12 improvement ecosystem, though it focuses on systems-level research rather than student feedback surveys.

Direct peers

• Search Institute: A nonprofit that develops youth-development surveys and frameworks (e.g., Developmental Assets). Directly comparable to YouthTruth in mission, nonprofit status, and survey-driven youth insights used by schools and youth-serving organizations.
• Panorama Education: A venture-backed K-12 platform that surveys students on social-emotional learning, school climate, and equity, and bundles the data with broader student-success analytics. It is the closest direct competitor to YouthTruth in K-12 stakeholder surveys.
• Hanover Research: A research and analytics provider serving K-12 districts and higher education with custom surveys, benchmarking, and advisory. Overlaps with YouthTruth on district-level feedback research and advisory services.

Broad incumbents

• Gallup: A global analytics firm best known for employee and student engagement surveys (e.g., Gallup Student Poll). Comparable to YouthTruth on stakeholder-engagement measurement, with much broader brand and methodology footprint.
• SurveyMonkey: A widely used general-purpose survey platform that schools and nonprofits can adopt at low cost. While not K-12 specialized, it represents the 'good enough' alternative against which YouthTruth must justify its premium, advisory-rich offering.
• Qualtrics: A large enterprise experience-management platform that schools and districts can use to run student, family, and staff surveys. It competes with YouthTruth on the survey-instrument layer, though it lacks YouthTruth's K-12-specific benchmarks.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCKTm6gdrF7K2rKUTShS_Oqg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/youthtruth

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 YouthTruth