America's Promise the Alliance for Youth

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
541848713
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2026570616
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Development N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$7,035,478
Expenses
$9,489,075
Assets
$13,636,810
Liabilities
$5,343,766

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

Leadership & pay

17 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MICHAEL O'BRIEN (CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • MICHAEL O'BRIEN (CEO): $559,228 total reported compensation
  • PARVATHI SANTHOSH-KUMAR (VP, COMMUNITY IMPACT): $256,383 total reported compensation
  • DANIELLA MORELLO LONG (CHIEF OF STAFF): $241,563 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

America's promise alliance is an innovator in collective action and a leader at improving outcomes at scale for young people in america. The organization convenes the ceos and leadership teams of leading nonprofits working in k12 education, postsecondary to workforce pathways, and civic health in a community designed to meet the urgent and interrelated challenges facing young people. This community both builds the capacity of leading nonprofits to increase their impact and evolve their models, and identifies and launches new collective action initiatives focused on challenges that are too large for any one organization to address on its own.

What it reported doing in 2025

Collective action initiatives- each year, america's promise alliance engages its member community in a structured process to identify, develop, and launch new multi-organization collaborations, including idea generation, expert review, initiative design, fundraising, and ongoing stewardship. These initiatives address field and system-level challenges that no single organization can solve alone. The alliance has launched four collective action initiatives to date. The institute for youth mental health helps direct service nonprofits build rigorous mental health strategies into their existing models, better equipping them to identify, triage, and refer participants to high-quality care, reaching more than one million students. The higher education innovation alliance establishes a common partnership model between colleges and the nonprofits supporting persistence and completion on their campuses. The outcomes transparency for nondegree pathways initiative creates citywide databases of verified wage and employment data so students and families can make informed decisions about which programs to attend. The teacher certification program creates a flexible, cost-effective pathway for nonprofit staff to earn teaching certification while remaining in their roles; 15 member organizations now offer it to their staff and alumni.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 85% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 97% 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 91
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 18
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 75.7%; rating input score 76
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.51 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 75th 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: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -34.9%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.44; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.39; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 24.1%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -6.9% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -6% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -6.2% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 75.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $7.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $559K · 17 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $753K reported
  • Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 10 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.
  • 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 34/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 21/100.