Advancement of Civilization Effort

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 822913579
IRS 990-EZ coverage: 2024–2025
Forms available: Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2023
Location: Princeville, HI, USA
Phone: 8086478213
Rating: 51
Verdict: MIXED
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Community Improvement, Capacity Building N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue: $76,251
Expenses: $82,707
Assets: $45,926
Liabilities: $70,711

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

Alix Erie (President)

People named in this filing

Alix Erie (President)
Daman Singh (Treasurer)
Charles Ostman (Board Member)

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

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

ACE's primary exempt purpose is to advance education, scientific research, and community development through programs that cultivate human potential, ethical intelligence, ecological awareness, and sustainable civilization design. ACE develops and shares research, workshops, retreats, ecotourism experiences, and community outreach related to contemplative practice, wellness, applied physics, EEG/BCI technologies, AI ethics and governance, and long-horizon sustainable community models. ACE's long-term purpose includes acquiring land and resources for a sustainable community and research institute where residents, members, visitors, and participants can train in practices and technologies that support higher human potential, moral development, responsible energy use, and beneficial human-AI co-evolution, informed by frameworks such as the Kohlberg and Kardashev scales.

What it reported doing in 2025

Ecotourism, Sustainability, Retreat Infrastructure, and Community-Based Program Development: ACE continued developing the foundation for its ecotourism and retreat-based program services in 2025. This included applying for a Public Utilities Commission permit to operate as a motor passenger carrier in support of ACE's emerging ecotourism program and purchasing a vehicle for this purpose: a 2025 Honda Pilot. The ecotourism program is intended to provide educational visitor experiences, sustainable transportation, island etiquette education, wellness-oriented excursions, and community-aligned activities connected to ACE's mission of ecological awareness, ethical development, and sustainable civilization design. The PUC permit process was pursued in 2025 and was subsequently granted in March 2026. ACE also continued developing the conceptual and operational framework for future workshops and retreats related to wellness, contemplative practice, ecological awareness, human potential, and responsible engagement with Kaua'i. These activities support ACE's long-term goal of acquiring land and resources for a sustainable community and research institute where residents, members, visitors, and participants can engage in educational programs, retreats, research, and regenerative community life.

Operating model

Revenue model: Earned-program. 100% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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.

The verdict

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. 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: 28
Transparency & Controls: 82
Sustainability: 25
Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 28.9%; rating input score 29
Program expense ratio: 26.6%; rating input score 27

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

Operating margin: -8.5%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.56; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.54; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Officer compensation ratio: 45.5%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: 200% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: -40.9% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: 200% per year; rating input score 100; 100th percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 28.9% of revenue deployed · 26.6% of spending went to programs
Governance: Filed governance answers
Accomplishments: 4 filed program accomplishments · $22K in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
Schedules: 2 filed schedules
Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
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.

High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 29/100.
High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 27/100.
High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 30/100.
Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 3/100.
High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.