Ambassador Christian Academy
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 471348924
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Queen Creek, AZ, United States
- Phone
- 480-387-0902
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,793,895
- Expenses
- $1,755,027
- Assets
- $304,160
- Liabilities
- $103,098
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- AMY CRISLIP (PRESIDENT)
- AMANDA PETTY (VICE PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- KRISTIN KOBZA (BOARD MEMBER): $55,555 total reported compensation
- ALICIA GAVLIK (TREASURER): $54,881 total reported compensation
- AMY CRISLIP (PRESIDENT): $51,427 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of Ambassador Christian Academy is to equip each student to become a successful life-long learner and ambassador for Christ. Our purpose is to faithfully promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who do not know Him and encourage those who do. While we do not require a student be a Christian, we do require that a least one parent has a relationship with Jesus Christ. Parents must be in agreement with our statement of faith and sign a parental support agreement at enrollment. What is the age requirement for admission into kindergarten? Kindergarten students should be five years of age on or before September 1st of the school year in which they are enrolled. Kindergarten students who will turn 5 between September 1st and January 1st will need to meet our academic and behavioral standards for consideration. Adminis.
What it reported doing in 2024
The school specializes in differentiated or individualized instruction. Each child is encouraged to learn at a pace that works for him or her within expected standards and goals set by the teacher. The teacher takes a very direct, hands-on role in facilitating each child's learning and mastery of knowledge. Every day our students have clear, measurable learning goals. This individualized approach to teaching has several, unique advantages over the traditional lecture driven classroom, including: high individual accountability which develops a mature personal responsibility, constant instructor/student interaction, so feedback is provided to the student immediately, reading and research skills are constantly and consistently utilized and high emphasis on collection, organization and analysis of data with note taking, notebooks and planners used daily.
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 99% 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
STRONG - 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: 86
- Transparency & Controls: 78
- Accountability: 77
- Sustainability: 28
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 95.7%; rating input score 96
- Program expense ratio: 97.9%; rating input score 98
- Fundraising efficiency: $0.8 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 67.8%; rating input score 68; 32nd 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: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2.2%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.17; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.34; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 11.8%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 16.9% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.8% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 19.9% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 95.7% of revenue deployed · 97.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $56K · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes grants
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 3/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 22/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.