The Leadership Academy, Inc.
Empowering leaders. Transforming schools for every student.
The Leadership Academy, Inc.
EIN: 03-0503570
as of October 2024
as of October 15, 2024
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our nation’s schools face a dual crisis: Black, indigenous, and students of color disproportionately lack access to the most adept teachers and challenging and engaging learning. At the same time, there is a shortage of education leaders with the skills, knowledge and beliefs to disrupt these inequities and ensure that each student is learning within a system intentionally built for them to achieve academic, social and emotional success. It is well-documented that students in the United States live and learn in racially segregated spaces, and that this segregation is the product of generations of racialized oppression, both codified and cultural. Within and across these segregated spaces, inequity is constantly reproduced through both action and inaction – and will continue to be without strong leadership to disrupt it.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
School & District Leadership Development
The Leadership Academy (TLA) is a national nonprofit organization that builds the capacity of educational leaders, at every level of the system, to confront inequities and create the conditions necessary for all students to thrive.
Where we work
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn 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?
Leadership is the essential lever for transforming schools and realizing an equitable, just society. We believe culturally responsive instructional leaders recognize the impact of institutionalized racism on their own lives and the lives of the students and families they work with, and embrace their role in mitigating, disrupting, and dismantling systemic oppression. We are committed to developing leaders with the will and skill to ensure the well-being of students who have been disproportionately failed by our nation’s schools, specifically students of color, multilingual students, students with special needs and those living in low income communities.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We support education leaders on the school, system, and state levels, empowering them to transform their leadership and create culturally rich environments in which all students can thrive. We strive to be thought leaders and provocateurs that balance research and practice and provide leaders the support and resources they need to implement such change. Given how complex and deep-seated Americans’ beliefs about race and equity are, we believe the one-time workshops so common in K-12 professional development are not effective in building leaders’ capacity to create culturally responsive environments for students. Instead, our approach is based on hands-on, job-embedded experiences and small group instruction. We guide leaders through hard conversations about race and bias, developing their ability to lead their own staff in the work.
Through direct facilitation and capacity building of local talent, our program model includes:
• Partnering with school boards, superintendents, and other district leadership to help develop educational equity and transform schools
• Supporting school leaders in developing leadership teams that accelerate school improvement
• Providing hands-on learning for aspiring and sitting principals, with a focus on racial equity
• Guiding school systems in developing their own aspiring principal programs to help expand their leadership pipelines
• Coaching equity officers around developing innovative approaches to transform schools.
• Training principal supervisors to build the capacity of school leaders to lead teachers in improving student learning
• Partnering with school boards, superintendents, and other district leadership to help develop educational equity and transform schools
Because inequity is so deeply embedded in educational systems, identifying and dismantling it must necessarily be a foundational precept of leadership. Complex, fundamental and structural changes must occur in order to ensure schools are intentionally designed for each child. Moreover, the process of dismantling inequities should be rooted in the experiences and perspectives of students, families, staff, and the community, and implemented by leaders who know how to continuously learn from and listen to those most impacted.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Leadership Academy, a nationally recognized nonprofit, aims to build the capacity of educational leaders to confront inequities and create the conditions necessary for all students to thrive. We develop leaders with the will and skill to accelerate learning for students who have been disproportionately failed by our nation’s schools, specifically Black, Indigenous and students of color, multilingual students, students with special needs, and those living in low-income communities. On average, the student population of the schools The Leadership Academy serves is: 26% White, 24% African American, 9% Asian, 37% Latinx, 14% ELL, 15% students with disabilities, and 64% free or reduced-price meals.
Through hands-on, job-embedded experiences, we guide school leaders through challenging conversations about race and bias, developing their ability to lead their own staff in doing so, and support them in growing leadership teams that accelerate school improvement focused on racial equity. We also build the capacity of principal supervisors to support principals in these ways and help district Cabinet members understand and model anti-racist, culturally responsive leadership. All our work is grounded in our framework, Culturally Responsive Leadership (CRL): A Framework for School & School System Leaders, which provides a set of research-based leadership behaviors and actions, aligned with national leadership standards, that reflect what leaders do when they create and grow school communities in which each and every student thrives. The framework focuses our district partnerships on such essential questions as: What does effective standards-aligned, culturally-relevant instruction look like? And what does a culturally responsive leader do when they successfully support a culturally responsive teacher?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Over the past 17 years, we have worked directly with more than 6,000 leaders in 190 school systems in 37 states through our customized, leadership-focused professional learning, coaching support, and programmatic capacity building.
Our Strategic Plan - Leadership Academy 2025 - outlines three essential needs identified through our work with thousands of school and system leaders across the country. With these needs in mind, we identified the high-leverage research-based actions we can take to support systems in making change on the classroom level while also making sustainable change on the system level. Those actions are captured in the three objectives or “drivers” that will guide our strategic plan for the next five years.
Driver 1: Link school leadership to culturally responsive classroom practices.
Driver 2: Support system-level leaders in developing a comprehensive approach to dismantling inequities and transforming student learning.
Driver 3: Create and share a research-driven leadership platform for systemic change.
Financials
Financial documents
Download audited financialsRevenue vs. expenses: breakdown
Liquidity in 2023 info
11.24
Months of cash in 2023 info
9.9
Fringe rate in 2023 info
25%
Funding sources info
Assets & liabilities info
Financial data
The Leadership Academy, 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 The Leadership Academy, 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 | -$753,905 | $367,654 | $1,528,275 | $1,012,206 | $616,886 |
As % of expenses | -9.1% | 4.9% | 20.4% | 12.9% | 6.5% |
Unrestricted surplus (deficit) after depreciation | -$774,387 | $352,102 | $1,517,323 | $1,001,255 | $608,674 |
As % of expenses | -9.3% | 4.7% | 20.2% | 12.8% | 6.4% |
Revenue composition info | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total revenue (unrestricted & restricted) | $7,894,087 | $7,050,618 | $8,271,640 | $10,047,490 | $12,334,988 |
Total revenue, % change over prior year | -0.7% | -10.7% | 17.3% | 21.5% | 22.8% |
Program services revenue | 53.6% | 50.8% | 39.8% | 32.6% | 24.0% |
Membership dues | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Investment income | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Government grants | 2.1% | 0.0% | 10.9% | 9.3% | 0.0% |
All other grants and contributions | 44.2% | 49.2% | 48.9% | 58.0% | 75.9% |
Other revenue | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
Expense composition info | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total expenses before depreciation | $8,285,034 | $7,521,420 | $7,508,328 | $7,829,577 | $9,535,064 |
Total expenses, % change over prior year | -14.8% | -9.2% | -0.2% | 4.3% | 21.8% |
Personnel | 68.3% | 62.4% | 60.3% | 65.5% | 62.4% |
Professional fees | 11.4% | 18.1% | 29.7% | 24.2% | 27.1% |
Occupancy | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Interest | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Pass-through | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
All other expenses | 20.2% | 19.5% | 10.0% | 10.3% | 10.5% |
Full cost components (estimated) info | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total expenses (after depreciation) | $8,305,516 | $7,536,972 | $7,519,280 | $7,840,528 | $9,543,276 |
One month of savings | $690,420 | $626,785 | $625,694 | $652,465 | $794,589 |
Debt principal payment | $0 | $0 | $0 | $935,135 | $0 |
Fixed asset additions | $0 | $54,652 | $0 | $15,227 | $0 |
Total full costs (estimated) | $8,995,936 | $8,218,409 | $8,144,974 | $9,443,355 | $10,337,865 |
Capital structure indicators
Liquidity info | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Months of cash | 1.5 | 5.6 | 7.1 | 8.2 | 9.9 |
Months of cash and investments | 1.5 | 5.6 | 7.1 | 8.2 | 9.9 |
Months of estimated liquid unrestricted net assets | 1.4 | 2.0 | 4.5 | 5.8 | 5.6 |
Balance sheet composition info | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cash | $1,059,553 | $3,512,187 | $4,444,036 | $5,322,647 | $7,858,460 |
Investments | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Receivables | $4,076,135 | $2,195,902 | $2,628,328 | $3,055,655 | $3,180,737 |
Gross land, buildings, equipment (LBE) | $1,312,690 | $1,367,342 | $1,370,940 | $1,386,167 | $1,331,515 |
Accumulated depreciation (as a % of LBE) | 99.2% | 96.3% | 96.9% | 96.6% | 98.6% |
Liabilities (as a % of assets) | 6.2% | 24.2% | 27.7% | 13.6% | 7.3% |
Unrestricted net assets | $977,106 | $1,329,208 | $2,846,531 | $3,847,786 | $4,456,460 |
Temporarily restricted net assets | $4,140,002 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Permanently restricted net assets | $0 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Total restricted net assets | $4,140,002 | $3,301,546 | $2,536,583 | $3,742,290 | $5,925,040 |
Total net assets | $5,117,108 | $4,630,754 | $5,383,114 | $7,590,076 | $10,381,500 |
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 & Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Nancy Gutierrez
Number of employees
Source: IRS Form 990
The Leadership Academy, Inc.
Officers, directors, trustees, and key employeesSOURCE: IRS Form 990
Compensation data
The Leadership Academy, Inc.
Highest paid employeesSOURCE: IRS Form 990
Compensation data
The Leadership Academy, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 08/09/2023
Board of directors data
Mr. Jonathan Moses
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Term: 2008 -
Jonathan Moses
Partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Erik W. Kahn
Partner, Bryan Cave LLP
Sy Sternberg
Retired Chairman & CEO, New York Life Insurance Company
Scott D. Widmeyer
Managing Partner, Widmeyer - A Finn Partners Company
Donald F. Donahue
President and CEO (retired), The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation
Kathrerine Bibb Hubbard
President & Founder, Learning Heroes
Jeanny Pak
Managing Director UBS Financial Services, Inc.
Darline Robles
Professor of Clinical Education USC Rossier School of Education
Kendra Ferguson
Principal Consultant Ferguson Consulting Group
Javaid Siddiqi
President & CEO The Hunt Institute
Mark Kornblau
Managing Partner Softbank
Hector Montenegro
President & CEO Montenegro Consultant Group
Robert Wise
Former Governor, Virginia
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data