ActivateWork
Legal name: Activate Work Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 831930213
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Jul 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Denver, CO, USA
- Phone
- 3039215111
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $4,002,930
- Expenses
- $3,518,829
- Assets
- $3,546,451
- Liabilities
- $1,411,996
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- HELEN HAYES (CEO/FOUNDER)
Highest reported compensation
- HELEN HAYES (CEO/FOUNDER): $176,752 total reported compensation
- KATHRYN HARRIS (PRES/COO): $164,453 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
ActivateWork is a talent solutions organization that transforms high-potential individuals into highly skilled, valuable team members. Our unique combination of rigorous recruiting, industry-driven training, curated job matches, and professional skills coaching prepares new employees to show up ready to contribute on day one.
What it reported doing in 2024
Activatework inc.'s (activatework) mission is to transform lives by training, launching, and coaching the next generation of technology stars. The organization's rigorous recruitment, industry-driven training, curated matches, and professional skills coaching prepare new employees to thrive in their careers. By enabling driven individuals, ages 18 to 65, to become highly skilled, valuable team members, activatework actualizes its central vision of creating a vibrant tech talent ecosystem that fuels opportunity, growth, and prosperity for the rocky mountain region. Through exceptional skills-based experiences, activatework learners build on their strengths, maximize their abilities, and transform their futures. Activatework helps build thriving communities by connecting under-skilled, underemployed, and unemployed adults to in-demand careers in technology. With a projected growth of 11.5% over the next five years and a rapidly evolving skills landscape due to the rise of artificial intelligence (ai) integration, Colorado's tech industry urgently needs a more sustainable talent pipeline to keep pace with employer demand. Activatework aligns this workforce gap with the untapped talent of individuals who face significant barriers to securing living-wage careers. Since 2020, activatework has enrolled 610 learners who reflect underserved demographics: 93% are low- income, earning below 80% of the area median income (ami), and of those 43% are classified as severely low-income (below 30% of ami); 64% do not have a four-year college degree; 26% are immigrants to the u.s.; 35% are women; and 3% are veterans or still active in the military. The organization is experienced in recruiting, training, and connecting these learners to high-demand career pathways, achieving an 85% program completion rate for enrollees, a 75% job placement rate for graduates, and average starting wages 120% greater than pre-training values. Further, thanks to its robust coaching program, activatework's graduates experience exceptional job retention, with 91% retained at 6 months and 87% retained at 12 months.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 75
- Sustainability: 49
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 73.6%; rating input score 74
- Program expense ratio: 83.4%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $54.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 12.1%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.01; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.4; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.7%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 27.8% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 17.2% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 22.5% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 73.6% of revenue deployed · 83.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $177K · 9 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.