Achieve Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
522006429
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2019
Forms available
Form 990 2019
Location
Silver Spring, MD, USA
Phone
2023213349
Rating
43
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Research Institutes and/or Public Policy Analysis

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$101,843
Expenses
$141,913
Assets
$0
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2019. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MICHAEL COHEN (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • MICHAEL COHEN (PRESIDENT): $374,489 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2019. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Achieve, inc. (achieve) is an education reform organization dedicated to supporting standards-based education reform efforts across the states. Achieve helps states raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments and strengthen accountability.

What it reported doing in 2019

College and career ready initiatives: achieve's college and career readiness work includes supporting national and state policy development and implementation, through research, technical assistance and advocacy, on issues critical to meeting achieve's mission that all students graduate from high school ready for postsecondary success. Among the issues in this work are the adoption and implementation of college- and career-ready policies on standards in english, mathematics and science and aligned assessments, graduation requirements, and performance indicators. (see schedule o for continuation.)achieve produces 50-state research reports that tracks states' college and career-ready and education accountability policies. Achieve also supports state efforts to create competency-based as well as career-focused pathways to high school graduation, among other initiatives. Supporting high quality implementation of academic standards in mathematics, english and science: throughs its equip initiative, achieve continutes to work to train and support educators to evaluate and identigy high-quality and aligned instructional materials in mathematics and english. Instructional materials of interest include year- or course-long curriculum, instructional units, lessons, student projects and other examples of student's work. Upon request by states, achieve also evaluates the alignment of state summative assessments to state standards, to ensure that state tests measure what matters most.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 100% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
No current program activity. The filing reports no program spending for the current year.

The verdict

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 0
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 4
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
  • Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -39.3%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 263.9%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -26.3% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -10.1% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -15.5% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments
  • Leadership: top reported pay $374K · 8 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $320K reported
  • Consistency: 18 of 19 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2010 to 2019
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 0/100.