Alk Positive Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
852221062
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Atlanta, GA, USA
Phone
6785769913
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,836,237
Expenses
$2,887,928
Assets
$6,855,964
Liabilities
$383,012

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

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SUMMER FARMEN (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • KIRK SMITH (PRESIDENT)
  • SUZANNE HOUSSAINY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 1/25-2/25)

Highest reported compensation

  • KENNETH CULVER (DOR & CLINICAL AFFAIRS, ED 11/25): $214,167 total reported compensation
  • SADIA YAAKOV (MEDICAL TEAM PROJECT MANAGER): $132,689 total reported compensation
  • SUZANNE HOUSSAINY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 1/25-2/25): $26,243 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

We are a patient-driven organization seeking a cure and working to improve patients' quality of life and life expectancy worldwide.

What it reported doing in 2025

Alk positive, inc. Is a patient driven 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation providing support, empathy, and research funding to change the future for alk-positive cancer patients. Alk-positive cancer is estimated to occur in approximately 100,000 patients worldwide every year. Although the vast majority of cases occur as lung cancer, it can also originate in many other organs. The median age for alk-positive patients at diagnosis is about 50 years with many in their forties, thirties and even younger. Approximately 55% of alk-positive patients are female and the disease occurs with people of all races.(continued on schedule o)in 2017, some alk-positive cancer patients and caregivers formed the outreach management group to partner with the lungevity foundation in order to raise funds for cancer research. In 2018, the partnership was formalized into a joint fundraising and research agreement with both lungevity and the go2 foundation for lung cancer. From 2017 to 2021, the partnerships generated over $4.7m in contributions and awareded $2.8m in translational research grants with the purpose of improving alk-positive cancer patient outcomes. By march 2021, the outreach management group had incorporated and was recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non profit organization called alk positive inc. During 2021-22 another $3.4m in contributions was generously raised with research grants totaling $2.6m awarded. Also in 2022, the first two employees were hired - a director of research and clinical affairs and an executive director.by far, the most effective treatments for alk-positive cancer are the roal alk tyrosine kinase inhibitors (tki's). These are now fda approved in 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation versions, each generation more effective than the previous. However, while tki's have improved median overall survival from a few months to many years, alk-positive cancers inevitably mutate and become resistant to all tki's. The organization created the research review panel (committee) comprising volunteer alk-positive cancer patients, caregivers and world-renowned scientific and research experts to help review and award the most promising alk-positive cancer research projects to improve patient outcomes. In 2022, this reserach team was expanded to:-research acceleration committee: accelerate academic and biotech research that leads to new therapies for alk-positive patients, including immunotherapies and combination therapies, and new clinical trials, via collaboration with academia, industry and venture capital.-clinical trials committee: collaborate with academia and industry to develop new frameworks for clinical trials and to accelerate creation, effective enrollment and successful readouts for clinical trials involving and beneficial to alk-positive patients.-translational investigations group: fram and implement an internal alk-positive research program that addresses key questions for which answers will enable the development of new alk therapies, niomarks of treatment response and accelerated clinical trials.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 41% for direct work, and 59% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 66
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 65
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 70.5%; rating input score 71
  • Program expense ratio: 91.9%; rating input score 92
  • Fundraising efficiency: $72.7 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 85.2%; rating input score 85; 29th 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: 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: 24.7%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.37; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.9%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 25.3% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 26.6% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14.7% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 70.5% of revenue deployed · 91.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $214K · 15 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 33 of 34 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 11 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 8 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.
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 58/100.