Growth Lessons for Nonprofits from Teach For America

Twenty-five years ago, Teach For America was just Wendy Kopp’s undergraduate project. Today, it is a pillar of the effort to radically change American education with a huge national footprint. From 384 corps members touching the lives of 20,000 public school students in 1990, it has grown to 10,471 corps members teaching 600,000 students in 2014, and from a startup with a small budget to a large nonprofit organization raising and spending $358 million in 2014. But criticism of TFA has been constant from within and without. Does it actually produce outcomes that justify its pillar status—and if not, why not? But beyond those questions of the intrinsic worth of the model are questions about the way TFA has managed its explosive growth.