How the foundation sustains the work.
Membership dues fund the operating budget — but every research fellowship, travel grant, and conference scholarship runs through the ACA Foundation, a separately governed charitable arm.
The work the foundation pays for.
The ACA Foundation is a non-profit endowment established by the founding members in 1991, four years after the association itself. Its purpose has always been narrow and concrete: fund the people the association cannot, on its own, support.
Each year the Foundation board reviews proposals from the Executive Council and the Editorial Board, then commits funds to a small number of programmes that have a clear, measured outcome. The figures below are for the 2025 cycle.
"The Foundation does the slow, unglamorous work — funding the third-year PhD who can't travel to her own conference."
— Foundation chair, 2024 annual letterTravel fellowships
82 grants awarded to early-career members.
Research seed grants
11 thematic-area projects, average $13k.
Open-access subsidy
Covers APCs for authors from lower-income nations.
Annual operating
Editorial office, secretariat, and audit fees.