Advance Colorado

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
854192457
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Englewood, CO, USA
Phone
3032187150
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Leadership Development

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,715,916
Expenses
$5,190,000
Assets
$1,712,244
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

1 person listed

People named in this filing

  • MICHAEL FIELDS (PRINCIPAL DIRECTOR)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Advance Colorado is a charitable non-profit organization that serves a public education mission. Advance Colorado educates citizens on principles to enhance and strengthen active citizenship in a democracy. Specific public education issues include: government fiscal responsibility; government transparency and accountability; limited government; free enterprise; lower taxes, strong public safety, and an accountable education system. Advance Colorado makes public education materials available to the general public.

What it reported doing in 2024

Through its website, which is open to the general public, advance Colorado provided hundreds of public educational materials related to the organization's mission. These public educational materials included podcasts, citizen guides, white papers, research and analysis, issue-based polling, and newsletters. These materials provided fact-based answers to issues that are critical to sustaining and supporting free and open democracy in the united states. In addition, representatives of advance Colorado accepted all invitations to speak to citizen groups across Colorado about these issues.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 47% for direct work, and 53% for grants.

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: 74
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 64
  • Sustainability: 54
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 80.3%; rating input score 80
  • Program expense ratio: 88.3%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 99.8%; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 9.2%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.33; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 97; 97th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 62.4% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 58.1% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 51.8% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 80.3% of revenue deployed · 88.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 1 of 1 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $4.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 1 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.6M reported
  • Consistency: 18 of 18 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 5 filed related-organization links
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 11/100.