Alumni Free Speech Alliance
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 874405869
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 7047246985
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alumni Associations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $447,235
- Expenses
- $218,620
- Assets
- $346,364
- Liabilities
- $3,644
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
People named in this filing
- Tom Neale (Chairman)
- Connie Buehler (Vice Chair)
- Jenna Robinson (Treasurer)
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
The Alumni Free Speech Alliance brings together alumni groups that support free speech academic freedom and viewpoint diversity at their colleges and universities. Alliance members believe that free speech academic freedom and viewpoint diversity are critical to the advancement of knowledge and to the very concept of a university. Yet surveys show that some 2-thirds of students at leading universities and colleges speech-suppress. AFSAs mission is to promote understanding of the threats to freedom of expression on American higher ed campuses and to assist in the development of alumni organizations at U.S. colleges and universities committed to advancing freedom of expression and viewpoint diversity.
What it reported doing in 2024
AFSA has a single program service which is to promote formation of and strengthen university and college alumni free speech-viewpoint diversity organizations. During 2024 our services helped bring the total of such organizations nationwide to 27: Boston U Bucknell Columbia U Cornell Dartmouth Davidson Furman U Harvard James Madison Lafayette Macalester MIT Michigan State Michigan Tech Princeton Stanford UCLA UCal U Chicago UNC U Penn UVA VMI Washington & Lee Williams Wofford & Yale. We provide organizing and technical assistance to alumni groups in formation e.g. assistance in developing websites and services conduct an annual meeting of members and through our website keep members abreast of developments in the free speech-viewpoint diversity movement.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 53% for direct work, and 47% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 93
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 72
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 47.6%; rating input score 48
- Program expense ratio: 97.3%; rating input score 97
- Fundraising efficiency: $638 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 86
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: 51.1%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.58; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 106.1% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 48.7% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 67.1% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 47.6% of revenue deployed · 97.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 6 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $213K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 13 people listed
- Consistency: 42 of 42 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes grants
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 48/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 53/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.