Facing History & Ourselves Inc.
People Make Choices. Choices Make History.
Facing History & Ourselves Inc.
EIN: 04-2761636
as of September 2025
as of September 09, 2025
Mission
Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to racism, antisemitism, and other forms of bigotry and hate.
Ruling year
1994
President and Chief Executive Officer
Desmond Blackburn
Main address
89 South St Ste 401
Boston, MA 02111-2676 USA
EIN
04-2761636
History
Elementary and secondary education
Civics for youth
Population served
Children and youth
Students
NTEE code
Elementary, Secondary Ed (B20)
IRS subsection
501(c)(3) Public Charity
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
Tax forms
Communication
Affiliations
Programs and results
Reports and documents
Download annual reportsWhat we aim to solve
We help educators prepare students to participate in civic life using intellect, empathy, ethics, and choice to stand up to bigotry and hate in their own lives, communities, and schools.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Facing History & Ourselves
Facing History offers middle and high school teachers, schools, and districts a comprehensive, sustained program that integrates SEL, equity, and civic learning into professional learning, curricular resources, and educator support for continuous improvement. We are experts in creating emotionally and intellectually engaging curriculum and delivering transformative training programs. Facing History's professional learning engages adults as learners, rather than simply adding to content knowledge or providing supplemental programs. Facing Historys program includes: - High-quality professional learning experiences for educators - Industry-leading curriculum and teaching resources for middle and high school social studies, history, and English language arts courses; and - School and district programs to help promote positive student outcomes, inclusive school cultures, and equitable educational practices
Where we work
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Canada
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United Kingdom
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United States
External assessments
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of educators trained
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Facing History & Ourselves
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Context Notes
This is the number of educators who have signed up for on-demand or live Facing History & Ourselves professional learning opportunities.
Number of schools in our Partner Network
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Facing History & Ourselves
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This is the number of schools currently in our Partner Network, which are institutions that have built Facing History's values into the core of their teaching practices.
Number of teachers recruited
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Facing History & Ourselves
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Decreasing
Context Notes
This is the number of new educators who have signed up to receive our classroom and professional development resources.
Number of teachers who demonstrate effective teaching practices
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Facing History & Ourselves
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Teachers who participate in our Professional Learning each year
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Facing History & Ourselves is in the final year of a growth plan and is well on track to meet its objectives. Our priorities are deepening impact, creating content, strengthening infrastructure, innovating digitally, cultivating systemic change, and promoting public conversation. These priorities are organized around three interdependent growth areas:
-Civic education: Investments in this area help to infuse whole classrooms, schools, and districts with an approach to education that fosters academic engagement with positive social-emotional learning gains.
-Content and innovation: Growth in this area extends Facing History's world-class scholarship and capacity for developing and sharing timely and relevant content, as well as for fostering learning communities among our network of teachers.
-Public engagement: Because no classroom exists in isolation, it is critical to engage members of the greater community in the conversations that begin with students and teachers in Facing History classrooms.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Facing History plans to implement its goals by:
- Positioning FHAO as a single school provider on programming that meets three critical education needs: social-emotional learning, civic education, and equity education.
- Focusing on systemic work in education by developing a school and district model where FH can be implemented throughout the system
- Adopting an online platform where we can begin to deliver self-paced learning and professional development to a large number of educators beyond the regions where we have presence
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Facing History has more than 200 staff members at 7 offices in the United States, partner entities in Canada and the UK, and educational partnerships around the world, including in South Africa, Rwanda, China, and Israel. In the 2014-15 school year, the organization conducted more than 375 professional development seminars, workshops, and webinars, both face-to-face and online. More than 1,200 educators participated in 50 in-depth seminars throughout the 2014-15 school year. Facing History has partnerships with school districts across the country, and a growing network of 79 Innovative Schools which implement Facing History across disciplines and grade levels, embracing the organization's core themes as foundational to their schools' missions.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
By studying the root causes of the Holocaust and other historical events marked by antisemitism, racism, and intolerance, students gain an understanding not only of how the past informs our world today, but also of the responsibility of individuals and groups to make a difference in their communities and in broader society. Facing History has a global footprint with seven US sites and two international partner entities. In total, more than 320,000 educators in all 50 states and virtually every country are part of a network that uses Facing Historys training and resources in their classrooms and, in turn, impact millions of students.
Facing History's effectiveness has been demonstrated by more than 100 external and internal evaluation studies that show Facing History positively impacts students skills for analyzing history, sense of civic agency, empathy, acceptance of those who do not share their beliefs, and prosocial behavior. Since 2015, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has rated Facing History & Ourselves as one of the top US programs for social-emotional learning (SEL) for both middle and high school students. CASEL also recognizes us for using strategies that support educational equity, one of only nine models for 7-12th graders that do so. In 2020, Facing Historys SEL program was added to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) list of approved programs; we are one of only eight approved programs for middle schools and one of only four approved for high schools.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
Financial documents
Download audited financialsRevenue vs. expenses: breakdown
Liquidity in 2023 info
4.94
Months of cash in 2023 info
3.5
Fringe rate in 2023 info
23%
Funding sources info
Assets & liabilities info
Financial data
Facing History & Ourselves Inc.
Revenue & expensesFiscal Year: Jul 01 - Jun 30
Facing History & Ourselves Inc.
Balance sheetFiscal Year: Jul 01 - Jun 30
The balance sheet gives a snapshot of the financial health of an organization at a particular point in time. An organization's total assets should generally exceed its total liabilities, or it cannot survive long, but the types of assets and liabilities must also be considered. For instance, an organization's current assets (cash, receivables, securities, etc.) should be sufficient to cover its current liabilities (payables, deferred revenue, current year loan, and note payments). Otherwise, the organization may face solvency problems. On the other hand, an organization whose cash and equivalents greatly exceed its current liabilities might not be putting its money to best use.
Fiscal Year: Jul 01 - Jun 30
This snapshot of Facing History & Ourselves Inc.’s financial trends applies Nonprofit Finance Fund® analysis to data hosted by GuideStar. While it highlights the data that matter most, remember that context is key – numbers only tell part of any story.
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Business model indicators
| Profitability info | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted surplus (deficit) before depreciation | -$1,343,696 | $1,641,669 | $20,266,382 | $5,794,190 | -$4,025,432 |
| As % of expenses | -4.9% | 5.9% | 84.2% | 21.7% | -12.2% |
| Unrestricted surplus (deficit) after depreciation | -$1,543,589 | $1,314,480 | $19,478,773 | $5,776,587 | -$4,382,982 |
| As % of expenses | -5.6% | 4.7% | 78.4% | 21.7% | -13.2% |
| Revenue composition info | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue (unrestricted & restricted) | $28,592,518 | $25,388,180 | $41,887,209 | $32,778,323 | $26,198,098 |
| Total revenue, % change over prior year | -11.1% | -11.2% | 65.0% | -21.7% | -20.1% |
| Program services revenue | 5.1% | 5.8% | 2.4% | 4.2% | 3.4% |
| Membership dues | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Investment income | 0.6% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 1.0% | 0.9% |
| Government grants | 0.0% | 11.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| All other grants and contributions | 93.3% | 82.3% | 89.0% | 91.9% | 93.0% |
| Other revenue | 0.9% | -0.1% | 8.1% | 3.0% | 2.7% |
| Expense composition info | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses before depreciation | $27,588,202 | $27,664,103 | $24,070,654 | $26,650,396 | $32,951,966 |
| Total expenses, % change over prior year | 7.2% | 0.3% | -13.0% | 10.7% | 23.6% |
| Personnel | 70.0% | 75.1% | 79.0% | 74.7% | 71.6% |
| Professional fees | 15.1% | 11.0% | 8.8% | 15.4% | 10.1% |
| Occupancy | 3.2% | 3.3% | 3.4% | 1.6% | 2.4% |
| Interest | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Pass-through | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| All other expenses | 11.5% | 10.5% | 8.8% | 8.3% | 16.0% |
| Full cost components (estimated) info | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses (after depreciation) | $27,788,095 | $27,991,292 | $24,858,263 | $26,667,999 | $33,309,516 |
| One month of savings | $2,299,017 | $2,305,342 | $2,005,888 | $2,220,866 | $2,745,997 |
| Debt principal payment | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Fixed asset additions | $381,856 | $0 | $0 | $1,848,947 | $1,063,575 |
| Total full costs (estimated) | $30,468,968 | $30,296,634 | $26,864,151 | $30,737,812 | $37,119,088 |
Capital structure indicators
| Liquidity info | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Months of cash | 1.3 | 2.6 | 5.8 | 7.9 | 3.5 |
| Months of cash and investments | 12.4 | 15.3 | 31.2 | 28.2 | 21.1 |
| Months of estimated liquid unrestricted net assets | 2.3 | 2.9 | 13.4 | 13.9 | 9.4 |
| Balance sheet composition info | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | $2,890,463 | $5,980,399 | $11,569,861 | $17,606,015 | $9,515,012 |
| Investments | $25,665,069 | $29,367,879 | $51,082,600 | $44,976,056 | $48,534,368 |
| Receivables | $23,734,021 | $14,123,705 | $10,081,366 | $7,255,121 | $7,351,639 |
| Gross land, buildings, equipment (LBE) | $4,097,442 | $4,250,078 | $4,417,007 | $3,242,723 | $3,566,740 |
| Accumulated depreciation (as a % of LBE) | 75.5% | 80.5% | 95.3% | 37.1% | 23.0% |
| Liabilities (as a % of assets) | 2.9% | 2.8% | 4.0% | 3.0% | 4.6% |
| Unrestricted net assets | $6,316,003 | $7,630,483 | $27,109,256 | $32,885,843 | $28,502,861 |
| Temporarily restricted net assets | $0 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Permanently restricted net assets | $46,308,545 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Total restricted net assets | $46,308,545 | $41,708,805 | $43,310,751 | $37,241,157 | $38,076,104 |
| Total net assets | $52,624,548 | $49,339,288 | $70,420,007 | $70,127,000 | $66,578,965 |
Key data checks
| Key data checks info | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material data errors | No | No | No | No | No |
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Documents
President and Chief Executive Officer
Desmond Blackburn
Desmond K. Blackburn, PhD is the President and CEO of Facing History & Ourselves.
Before joining Facing History, Desmond was Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership for the New York City Department of Education. Prior to that, Desmond served as CEO of the New Teacher Center.
His career in education began in 1996 as a high school teacher. Desmond continued to follow his passion for education as an Assistant Principal, Principal, Director of School Improvement, Area Superintendent, Chief of School Performance & Accountability, and finally the Superintendent of Schools for Brevard Public Schools in Brevard County.
Desmond has served both state and national organizations. He is a fellow at the Broad Academy and Pahara Institute as well as an Advisory Committee Member for The Broad Center at the Yale School of Management.
Number of employees
Source: IRS Form 990
Facing History & Ourselves Inc.
Officers, directors, trustees, and key employeesSOURCE: IRS Form 990
Compensation data
Facing History & Ourselves Inc.
Highest paid employeesSOURCE: IRS Form 990
Compensation data
Facing History & Ourselves Inc.
Board of directorsas of 6/30/2025
Board of directors data
Jill Garling
Volunteer
Term: 2022 - 2029
Abdullah Antepli
Abdullah T Antepli DIRECTOR
Aj Janower DIRECTOR
Alan Yang DIRECTOR
Alan Yang
Andrew Janower
Caretha Coleman
Caretha Coleman DIRECTOR
Carol Jonson-Dean DIRECTOR
Cheryl Einhorn
Cheryl Strauss Einhorn DIRECTOR
Cristina Fockler
Daniel Katz DIRECTOR
Daniel Katz
Debbie Pummer Bussey DIRECTOR
Deborah Plummer
Debra Engel
Debra Engel DIRECTOR
Desmond Blackburn PRESIDENT/CEO
Carol Johnson-Dean
Edda Collins Coleman
Edda Collins Coleman DIRECTOR
Emily Leventhal DIRECTOR
Emily Leventhal
Eunice Lee DIRECTOR
Eunice Lee
Fernando M Reimers DIRECTOR
Fernando Reimers
Jeffrey Bussgang
Jeffrey J Bussgang DIRECTOR
Jill Ellen Karp DIRECTOR
Jill Garling DIRECTOR
Jill Garling
Volunteer
Jill Karp
Josh Lipman DIRECTOR
Joshua Lipman
Judy Wise
Judy Wise DIRECTOR
Julie Abrams Leff DIRECTOR
Julie Leff
Kristyn Friske
Kristyn Friske DIRECTOR
Kwame Anthony Appiah DIRECTOR
Kwame Appiah
Lisa Conn
Lisa Conn DIRECTOR
Lori Fife
Lori R Fife DIRECTOR
Marcus L Smith DIRECTOR
Marcus Smith
Mark Fife
Mark S Fife DIRECTOR
Mykhanh Shelton DIRECTOR
MyKhanh Shelton
Paul Berz
Paul H Berz DIRECTOR
Rachel Schwartz
Rachel Schwartz DIRECTOR
Richard Melvoin
Rick Melvoin DIRECTOR
Saul Pannell
Saul Pannell DIRECTOR
Shelly Saltzman DIRECTOR
Shelly Saltzman
Stacy Sharpe DIRECTOR
Stacy Sharpe
Susie Richardson DIRECTOR
Susie Richardson
Thomas Phillips
Thomas Phillips DIRECTOR
Tina Fockler DIRECTOR
Wendy Fischman DIRECTOR
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? yes
Contractors
Fiscal year endingGuideStar Pro Reports
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