Students For Liberty

Students For Liberty (SFL) is a libertarian organization that connects pro-liberty students worldwide. SFL promotes economic freedom, individual freedom, and academic freedom by developing student leaders, educating people on the key principles of classical liberalism, and networking existing pro-liberty student organizations. 1

Read More

At-A-Glance

Type: Non-profit, 501(c)(3)
Issue Areas: Multi-Issue Advocacy
Website:

studentsforliberty.org/north-america

Location:

Arlington, VA

Formation:

2009

CEO:

Wolf von Laer

CEO’s Salary:

$200,545 2

Tax ID: 94-3435899
Most Recent Filing: 2025
Budget (2025): Assets: $1,846,915 Revenue: $5,821,196 Expenses: $6,326,705

Contents

    Students For Liberty is an associate member of the State Policy Network, a coalition of free-market state-level policy organizations. 3 Members of SFL’s board of advisors have affiliations with the Republican and Libertarian Parties.

    Activity

    Students For Liberty was founded in 2008 to connect and support largely isolated students supportive of libertarian principles across college campuses. 1 SFL promotes economic freedom, individual freedom, and academic freedom by networking existing pro-liberty student organizations like Young Americans for Liberty, College Libertarians, Students for Individual Liberty, and other groups that support libertarianism. 1

    Students For Liberty provides training programs to help its volunteers develop leadership skills in order to promote liberty. 4 These include its Local Coordinator Program, which recruits and trains students to promote libertarianism on campus; 5 the SFL Academy, which offers gamified, online courses teaching the principles of liberty; 6 and Learn Liberty, a YouTube channel providing videos that promote the ideas of a free society. 7

    Students For Liberty currently supports several single-issue campaigns, which include End the Drug War, Free Market Revolution, and T3ch L1b3rty. These campaigns are meant to raise awareness of the failures of the War on Drugs; the importance of entrepreneurship, innovation, and markets free from excessive regulations and licensing; and technological liberty, respectively. 4

    Funding

    Students For Liberty is funded by donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations. While SFL does not disclose its donors, tax filings show notable donations from Donors Capital Fund ($400,000 in 2014), 8 Donors Trust ($224,500 in 2019), 9 and the John Templeton Foundation ($195,467 in 2016). 10

    Board of Directors

    Alexander McCobin is a co-founder and former president of Students For Liberty, sits on the advisory board of the Atlas Society, and was an honorary board member of the Our America Initiative. McCobin formerly worked at the Cato Institute. 11

    Dan Grossman formerly served as chair of the Foundation for Economic Education. 12

    John Mackey is the co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market and the co-founder of the Conscious Capitalism Movement. 13

    Katherine Mangu-Ward is editor in chief of Reason magazine. 14

    Liya Palagashvili is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute. 15

    Samuel Eckman is a co-founder of SFL. Eckman is a former Koch Summer Fellow and former legal research aide for former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter. 16

    Sloane Frost is a co-founder and chair of the board of SFL. Frost formerly worked as a research analyst at Mathematica Policy and as an intern at the Cato Institute. 17

    Board of Advisors

    David Boaz is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute. 18

    James Lark is the chair of the board of the Advocates for Self-Government and secretary of the board of the International Society for Individual Liberty. Lark formerly served as chair of the Libertarian Party. 19

    Jo Kwong is the director of economic opportunity programs at the Philanthropy Roundtable. Kwong formerly held positions at the Institute for Humane Studies, Capital Research Center, the Property and Environment Research Center, and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. 20

    Nigel Ashford is the senior program officer at the Institute for Humane Studies. Ashford is a former Bradley Resident Scholar at the Heritage Foundation and former visiting scholar at the Social and Philosophy Policy Center. 21

    Tom Palmer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, the director of Cato University, and the executive vice president for international programs at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Palmer is a former vice president at the Institute for Humane Studies. 22

    Frayda Levy is a co-founder of the Moving Picture Institute and the chair of Americans for Prosperity. Levy serves on the boards of the Club For Growth, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and the Marijuana Policy Project. 23

    Gabriel Calzada Alvarez is the president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education. 24

    Gary Johnson formerly served as Governor of New Mexico as a Republican and was the Libertarian Party nominee for President of the United States in 2012 and 2016 and for U.S. Senate from New Mexico in 2018. 25

    Larry Reed is the president of Foundation for Economic Education and a founder and former president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. 26

    Linda Whetstone is the chair of the Network for a Free Society and serves on the boards of the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. 27

    Michael Carnuccio is the president and CEO of the E Foundation for Oklahoma and the founder of the Liberty Foundation of America. Carnuccio serves on the boards of the Fairness Center and the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. 28

    Financial Statistics

    Total Assets

    Total Revenue

    Total Expenses

    YearTotal AssetsTotal RevenueTotal ExpensesFiling
    2025 $1,846,915 $5,821,196 $6,326,705 View
    2024 $2,457,202 $5,112,524 $6,920,806 View
    2023 $5,163,272 $5,747,299 $5,790,354 View
    2022 $5,197,632 $6,797,515 $4,301,086 View
    2021 $2,821,184 $4,000,690 $2,848,217 View

    Prior year filings: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012

    Revenue Detail

    Expenses Detail

    Employee Compensation

    • Number of Employees: 20

    Highest Earning Employees

    EmployeeTitleTotal Compensation
    Dr Wolf Von LaerCEO$239,091
    Kenneth WagnerDIR OF DEVEL$190,153
    Joshua SandersDIRECTOR OF$125,031
    Robyn HarbergerSR DIRECTOR$121,417
    Joshua MurdockDIRECTOR OF$119,355

    Grant Activity

    All-time grants received statistics from Candid dataset:

    • Total Grant Value: $17,972,682
    • Number of Grants: 377
    • Number of Funders: 116

    Selection of highest value grants received from the last seven years:

    AmountYearFunderSubject
    $1,491,0002022 Vanguard CharitableFor recipient's exempt purpose
    $1,430,0002024 Vanguard CharitableFOR RECIPIENT'S EXEMPT PURPOSE
    $1,376,5002021 Vanguard CharitableFOR RECIPIENT'S EXEM
    $1,335,9832022 Prometheus FoundationEDUCATION
    $732,7352021 Prometheus FoundationEDUCATION
    $704,6392023 Prometheus FoundationEDUCATION
    $497,3002024 Donors Trust Incfor general operations
    $375,0002020 Claws Foundation C/o Sterling Foundation Management LLCGENERAL SUPPORT
    $344,0002022 Donors Trust Incfor general operations
    $340,1002023 Donors Trust Incfor general operations
    $268,0002020 Donors Trust Incfor general operations
    $237,1002021 Donors Trust Incfor general operations
    $220,0002024 The Dunn FoundationGeneral & Unrestricted
    $205,0002023 The Dunn FoundationGeneral & Unrestricted
    $200,0002022 The Dunn FoundationGeneral & Unrestricted
    $200,0002021 The Dunn FoundationGeneral & Unrestricted
    $200,0002020 The Dunn FoundationGeneral & Unrestricted
    $105,7002020 Donor Advised Charitable Giving, Inc.Education
    $102,5002024 The UpMobility FoundationGeneral Charitable Purposes
    $95,0002024 Charles Koch FoundationGeneral operating support
    $55,0002023 DuPage FoundationRESEARCH INSTITUTE / PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS
    $55,0002021 Donors Trust Inc$50,000 to support SFL's efforts on Bitcoin/ $5,000 for the Indonesia Project
    $50,0002024 The Lowndes Foundation IncCONTRIBUTION
    $50,0002024 The Beach FoundationGENERAL FUND
    $50,0002023 The Beach FoundationGENERAL FUND

    All-time grants given statistics from Candid dataset:

    • Total Grant Value: $26,900
    • Number of Grants: 1
    • Number of Recipients: 1

    Contact InfluenceWatch to report errors, suggest edits, or provide tips for additional profiles.

    Contact Us

    Financials, employee compensation, and grant information provided by Candid.

    Mentioned in this Article

    References

    1. “About Us.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/about-us/.
    2. Students For Liberty Inc, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2019, Part VII, Section A, Line 1a.
    3. “The Network: Washington, DC.” State Policy Network, 2021. Accessed September 13, 2021. https://spn.org/directory/#DC.
    4. “Programs.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/programs/.
    5. “Local Coordinator Program.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/local-coordinator-program/.
    6.  “SFL Academy.” Students For Liberty, 2018. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://www.learnliberty.org/sfl-academy/.
    7. “About Learn Liberty.” YouTube. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/c/LearnLiberty/about.
    8. Donors Capital Fund, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2014, Schedule I, Part II.
    9. Donors Trust, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2019, Schedule I, Part II.
    10.  John Templeton Foundation, Return of Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2016, Part XV, Line 3a.
    11. Alexander McCobin.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/alexander-mccobin/.
    12. “Dan Grossman.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/dan-grossman/.
    13. “John Mackey.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/mackey/.
    14. “Katherine Mangu Ward.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/katherine-mangu-ward/.
    15. Liya Palagashvili.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/liya-palagashvili/.
    16. “Samuel Eckman.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/eckman/.
    17. “Sloane Frost.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/frost/.
    18. “David Boaz.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/boaz/.
    19.  “James Lark.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/lark/.
    20. “Jo Kwong.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/kwong/.
    21. “Nigel Ashford.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/ashford/.
    22. “Tom Palmer.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/palmer/.
    23.  “Frayda Levy.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/levy/.
    24. “Gabriel Calzada Alvarez.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/gabriel-calzada-alvarez/.
    25. “Gary Johnson.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/johnson/.
    26. “Larry Reed.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/reed/.
    27. “Linda Whetstone.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/whetstone/.
    28. “Michael Carnuccio.” Students For Liberty, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/staff/michael-carnuccio/.