Albany Fund for Education

Legal name: Albany Fund for Education Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
141810885
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2019
Location
Albany, NY, US
Phone
(518) 417-2107
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$242,944
Expenses
$200,574
Assets
$389,062
Liabilities
$128,032

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

Leadership & pay

17 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KATHRYN BAMBERGER (PRESIDENT)
  • PAUL COLLINS-HACKETT (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • GINNIE FARRELL (IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT)
  • MARI SHOPSIS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • MARI SHOPSIS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $37,900 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 inspire and support students and bring innovative learning to all our schools.

What it reported doing in 2024

School pantry program - equip food pantries in four elementary schools with all equipment necessary to run a full-service school food pantry for students, including refrigerators, freezers, and storage supplies. Provide all school district food pantries with funds to purchase food from the regional food bank and to purchase culturally specific foods for their students.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 68% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 72% for direct work, and 28% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 72
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 52
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 73.1%; rating input score 73
  • Program expense ratio: 87.4%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $14.25 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 27.7%; rating input score 28; 39th 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 17.4%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.94; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.33; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: Limited

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14.8% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site
  • Where the money goes: 73.1% of revenue deployed · 87.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 16 of 16 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $175K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $38K · 17 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 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 — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 28/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 49/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.