American Credit Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
870628487
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2022
Forms available
Form 990 2022
Location
Draper, UT, USA
Phone
8012081000
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Financial Counseling

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,771,052
Expenses
$2,243,033
Assets
$0
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2022. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SCOTT PETERSON (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • JOHN C KELLER (MANAGER): $105,969 total reported compensation
  • SCOTT PETERSON (PRESIDENT): $42,908 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2022. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The purpose of this organization is to provide free credit counseling to the general public. Direct consultations with trained staff, program implementation and seminars have been extremely successful.

What it reported doing in 2022

The purpose of this organization is to provide free credit counseling to the general public. This has been successful in the tax year 2013. Our experienced, trained staff have through direct consultations been able to help our clients, from all walks of life, to create debt management programs and maintain that program for longer than a year. This is a large accomplishment because most clients cannot maintain their program for a year. We credit our high retention numbers to the one on one trained credit counselors who follow up on a regular basis with their assigned client. We have also been successful with our free seminars that reach out to the general public. We have used both our in house facility and our out of the office. In these seminars we use trained staff to teach debt management, how to get out and stay out of debt, how to use money wisely in these tough economic conditions. These seminars have been well attended and we have received positive feedback from those attending the seminars.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 62% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 87
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 9
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 94.5%; rating input score 94
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th 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: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Limited
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -26.6%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.6%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.2% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 94.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $2.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $106K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2011 to 2022
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 49/100.