Appalachian Studies Association Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 611257019
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Huntington, WV, USA
- Phone
- 3046962904
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $155,839
- Expenses
- $153,792
- Assets
- $184,377
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
19 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mary Thomas (Executive Director)
- Sophia Enriquez (President)
- Travis A Rountree (Immediate Past President)
- Katherine Ledford (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Mary Thomas (Executive Director): $48,535 total reported compensation
- Ann Bryant (Ex-Officio Officer Manager): $37,988 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Public Education & Journal Publication. The mission of the Appalachian Studies Association is to promote and engage dialogue, research, scholarship, education, creative expression, and action among scholars, educators, practitioners, grassroots activists, students, individuals.
What it reported doing in 2024
Appalachian Studies Conference and Publication of The Journal of Appalachian Studies. Approximately 650 to 1,000 people attend the conference and the Journal has a wide circulation in the region.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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 - 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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 72
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.7%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 78.3%; rating input score 78
- Fundraising efficiency: $15.5 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.3%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.2; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 56.3%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 28.2% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79.7% of revenue deployed · 78.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 3 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $120K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $49K · 19 people listed
- Consistency: 16 of 17 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.