Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation
Overview
Mission
The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.
What it reported doing in 2024
Middle and high school activities: mheac engages in a variety of activities in furtherance of higher education. The mission is to help students know themselves, know their options, and make informed decisions to achieve their education and career goals. Asa is committed to helping students explore education and career options starting in middle school, experiment through hands-on opportunities, and execute a plan to meet their goals. Asa's innovative programs and partnerships, combined with a robust research agenda and advocacy platform, enable asa to provide meaningful impact to young people on a national scale.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 66% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 77% for direct work, and 23% for grants.
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 042254705
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Headquarters
- Boston, MA, USA
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 80
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 80
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 64.7%; rating input score 65
- Program expense ratio: 78.9%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.7%; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
- Public monitoring controls: Limited
- Public policy transparency: Limited
- Public financial transparency: Limited
- Impact reporting controls: Limited
- Public relationship transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Public governance controls: Limited
- Zakat policy transparency: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 25.2%; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Operating reserve ratio: 9.7; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.7%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -5.9% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -4.9% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 64.7% of revenue deployed · 78.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 11 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $90.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $581K · 25 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 35 of 35 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 annual filings from 2009 to 2024
- Money network: 74 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 53 filed related-organization links