American Indian Higher Education Consortium Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
840640326
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
Alexandria, VA, USA
Phone
7038380400
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$14,334,157
Expenses
$14,146,873
Assets
$34,532,502
Liabilities
$4,929,134

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

46 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DAVID YARLOTT JR (PRESIDENT/CHAIR)
  • AHNIWAKE L ROSE (PRESIDENT & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • AHNIWAKE L ROSE (PRESIDENT & CEO): $295,875 total reported compensation
  • JOHN PHILLIPS (LAND-GRANT PRG DIR): $245,594 total reported compensation
  • TINA COOPER (VP OF FIN & ADM): $242,128 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Aihec is the collective spirit and unifying voice of our nation's tribal colleges and universities (tcus). Aihec provides leadership and influences public policy on american indian higher education issues through advocacy, research, and program initiatives; promotes and strengthens indigenous languages, cultures, communities, and tribal nations; and through our unique position, serve member institutions and emerging tcus.

What it reported doing in 2024

Bie technical assistance: aihec technical assistance program advances tcus' capacity to achieve their individual and collective missions, improve students' success, and maintain accreditation. The broad range of services upon which tcus depend include the coordination of annual collection and analysis of comprehensive institutional data to aid tcus with compliance with increasingly more rigorous accreditation standards and compliance reporting requirements; resolution of issues and challenges with federally-administered grants and programs; disseminating timely and accurate information regarding pending federal programmatic and legislative/appropriations matters of direct relevance to tcus; facilitation of meetings and fostering communities of practice that provide networking opportunities and sharing of best practices.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 68% for direct work, and 32% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 48
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 84.6%; rating input score 85
  • Program expense ratio: 89%; rating input score 89
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 99.8%; rating input score 100; 38th 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 1.3%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.44; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 11.9%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.3% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.9% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 22.9% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 84.6% of revenue deployed · 89% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 36 of 36 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $12.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $296K · 46 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.2M reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 47 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 38 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.