Experimental Aircraft Association

Experimental Aircraft Association

Paul Poberezny founded the Experimental Aircraft Association in 1953, gathering a group of amateur aircraft builders in Milwaukee. The organization relocated its headquarters to Oshkosh's Wittman Regional Airport and grew into an international membership body of over 200,000 aviation enthusiasts. The EAA Aviation Foundation, established as a separate philanthropic entity, channels tax-deductible contributions into youth education, museum operations, and scholarship programs. The association's primary revenue engine and programmatic focus is EAA AirVenture, a weeklong fly-in that draws more than 600,000 attendees and 10,000 aircraft annually to Oshkosh. EAA's institutional portfolio supports its 501(c)(3) mission through a mix of investment income, philanthropic foundations — including major support from the Ray Foundation for the EAA Education Center — corporate sponsorship agreements with organizations such as Boeing, and income from physical assets including the EAA Aviation Museum and its flying collection of historic aircraft. The organization's geographic footprint is rooted in Wisconsin with a single centralized campus, though its membership base and event attendance are global. Under Chairman and CEO Jack J. Pelton, the EAA leadership team manages an operating infrastructure that includes the EAA Aviation Center, a dedicated museum, and multiple vintage aircraft operated for education and exhibition. The organization's divisions, including the International Aerobatic Club, indicate depth beyond a single-program organization. Recent operational focus has included the expansion of the EAA Education Center, a facility designed to deliver hands-on STEM programming funded in part by a significant grant from the Ray Foundation. EAA's financial structure differentiates it from a typical endowment. The majority of its annual funding is generated through an experiential consumer event rather than a static financial portfolio, creating a hybrid institution that blends a nonprofit museum, an advocacy group, and an airshow operator. The foundation's endowment serves as a long-term stabilization mechanism for an organization whose annual operating health remains closely tied to the logistics and weather of one week in July.