Aid to Adoption of Special Kids Aask Arizona

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
860611935
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Phoenix, AZ, USA
Phone
6022542275
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Services

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$11,346,445
Expenses
$8,805,338
Assets
$38,280,369
Liabilities
$1,063,446

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • RON ADELSON (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)

Highest reported compensation

  • RON ADELSON (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $425,871 total reported compensation
  • JOANNE CHIARIELLO (FORMER CHIEF CLINICAL DIRECTOR): $151,768 total reported compensation
  • VICKY BAYSHORE (CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $122,845 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To build and strengthen families for the children in Arizona's foster care system (primarily in maricopa and pinal counties).

What it reported doing in 2024

Adoption and foster care identifies, recruits and trains community and kinship families to foster children in the Arizona foster care system. Specialized foster care identifies foster families for children/adults with special physical or developmental needs as determined by the Arizona department of developmental disabilities and two native american communities. Aask assists the families in obtaining and maintaining their foster licenses and provides on-going support and resources for the families. In addition, aask provides support to populations that extend the boundaries of foster care and adoption. These supports include: 1) wendy's wonderful kids recruiters identify families for children in care who are considered "tougher to place; 2) fostering sustainable connections works to reduce children in congregate care and improve family engagement by imploring extensive family finding efforts for the purposes of kin connections and placement. 3) post permanency offers after placement support which includes parent education, training, parent and youth support groups, 24-hr helpline, and help to secure necessary resources to support families, and 4) an aask nursing professional provides support to families caring for children with serious illnesses.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 72% 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.
  • 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 76
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 62.2%; rating input score 62
  • Program expense ratio: 87.5%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.61 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 22.4%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.35; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 11.8%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.1% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 1.7% per year; rating input score 100; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 62.2% of revenue deployed · 87.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $7.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $426K · 11 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

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

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 40/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.