American Counseling Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 530211350
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Alexandria, VA, USA
- Phone
- 7038239821
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $15,740,873
- Expenses
- $16,623,015
- Assets
- $19,409,241
- Liabilities
- $10,924,415
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
44 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Christine Bhat (President)
- Edil Torres Rivera (Past President)
- Elsa Soto Leggett (President Elect)
- Shawn Boynes (Chief Executive Officer (THRU 4/15/2025))
- SYVONNE CARTER (CEO (5/2025 - 11/2025))
- Richard Yep (Former CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Shawn Boynes (Chief Executive Officer (THRU 4/15/2025)): $529,597 total reported compensation
- Angela Thompson (Chief Operating Officer): $374,915 total reported compensation
- Mahzarine Chinoy (Chief Financial Officer): $277,358 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 american counseling association (aca) is a not-for-profit, professional and educational organization that is dedicated to the growth and enhancement of the counseling profession. Founded in 1952, aca is the world's largest association exclusively representing counselors in various practice settings.
What it reported doing in 2024
Membership: description: more than 60,000 professional counselors and counselors in training call american counseling association (aca) their professional home. Our efforts focus on recruitment, retention and provision of benefits to counseling professionals and counselors in training who are required to abide by the aca code of ethics. Benefits of membership include free or discounted continuing education offerings; discounted liability insurance; complimentary ethical and career consultations; access to exclusive resources such as state licensure information; and other professional support.in addition to our general membership offerings, aca members can affiliate with several specialty interest divisions and/or regional components within american counseling association such as counselors for social justice, the association for creativity in counseling, the american college counseling association and the association for child and adolescent counseling.in addition to directly supporting membership-related activities, revenue from membership dues also supports a wide range of aca activities that directly serve our members. This includes areas such as advocacy, component relations, education, ethics, the annual conference, and operational support, among others.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 97% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of total spending goes to programs and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 57
- Transparency & Controls: 93
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 23
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 67.3%; rating input score 67
- Program expense ratio: 57.7%; rating input score 58
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 20th 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; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 89.3%; rating input score 89; 22nd 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: -5.6%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.17; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.56; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 18.2%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -3% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.5% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 67.3% of revenue deployed · 57.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 25 of 28 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $9.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $530K · 44 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.6M reported
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 16 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 58/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 15/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 42/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.