AOPA Air Safety Foundation

What it reported doing in 2010

Pilots nationwide rely on the AOPA Air Safety Foundation for the information, tools, and analysis they need to make their flying safer. As a nonprofit pilot education and safety organization, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF) provides free and low-cost education programs to pilots and flight instructors nationwide, analyzes safety data, and conducts and distributes safety research. The AOPA Air Safety Foundation focuses on continually expanding its reach to any and all pilots who want to improve their awareness of safety issues, enhance their understanding, and learn from the mistakes of others. We work tirelessly to identify the subjects that are most critical to pilot safety; create and distribute high-quality and cost-effective training products addressing those subjects; take advantage of special research and development opportunities that serve pilots; and provide industry-leading GA safety information to AOPA members and all pilots. The AOPA Air Safety Foundation represents general aviation and AOPA members at industry and government meetings where safe flying is a core topic and takes advantage of new media and technology to reach as many individual pilots as possible with safety information and tools. In the first nine months of 2010, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation touched 1.4 million pilots through online courses (362,000), the accident database (306,000), publications downloads (329,000), safety quizzes (295,000), pilot safety announcements (55,000); live and online safety seminars (30,000), and other educational products (19,000). In October of 2010, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation merged with The AOPA Foundation. Information for the final three months of the year is available through The AOPA Foundation, Inc. The AOPA Air Safety Foundation's interactive courses are provided free of charge to all pilots and are extremely easy to use. Most courses take approximately one hour to complete, but users control the pace and can save their progress at any time, allowing them to work in short increments, completing a course over multiple sessions, if that works better with their schedules. In 2010, ASF offered more than 30 interactive online courses on topics ranging from evaluating the risk of a specific flight and mastering radio communications to decision making skills for pilots and using GPS for both visual and instrument flight operations. Each course is self-paced, interactive, and engaging, enabling pilots to learn, review, and test their understanding along the way. In addition, the AOPA Air Safety Foundation's web site offers dozens of presentations to help pilots take advantage of the collective wisdom of the GA community. These include a comprehensive accident database of National Transportation Safety Board accidents from 1983 through the present. The object of providing this material is to help pilots learn from the mistakes of others. Similarly, Real Pilot Stories offer detailed first-person accounts of the challenges pilots have faced, the mistakes they have made, and what they learned from those experiences. ASF also creates special reports from high-profile or common accidents to help pilots avoid the situations that can lead to disaster. Other presentations available on the web site include: -The VFR GPS Guide: Garmin 430/530-A self paced, 15 minute presentation focusing on the GPS functions regularly used by a typical pilot in VFR flight. -Fuel Management Resources-A guide to helping pilots avoid accidents involving fuel exhaustion, starvation, and contamination. -Accident Statistics-Graphical representations of the latest statistical data available from the FAA and NTSB. -ASF Safety Quizzes-A quick, easy, and interactive way for pilots to assess and expand their knowledge of dozens of aviation subjects, including weather, airport lighting, IFR and VFR flying; stalls and spins; collision avoidance; charts; emergency procedures; mountain flying; spatial disorientation; preventive maintenance; wake turbul

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: Limited
• Program expense ratio: Limited
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 6 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Pass
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 90%; rating input score 90; 23rd 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: -45.9%; rating input score 3; 3rd 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: 26.2%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: Limited
• Revenue growth: Limited
• Asset growth: Limited