Arete Education Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Arete education trains and empowers youth to lead successful lives by getting students into good colleges, good jobs, and healthy mindsets. Arete closes the experience gap with an additional 500 hours of academic and enrichment experiences and provides access to books and computers, healthy meals, structured exercise, social-emotional learning, paid internships, financial life skills, mentorship, and trips to cultural institutions. Arete's core youth development services include: (1) expanded day for elementary and middle school students; (2) summer bridge program that integrates arts and academics in an all-day, five-week format; (3) college bridge program that combines high school credit acceleration and paid internships in a five-week format; (4) work-based learning and paid internships in teaching, stem, and the arts; (5) integrated college access services; and (6) year-round service learning and leadership youth development.arete serves New York city communities, specifically the south bronx (mott haven), brooklyn north (bed-stuy), and manhattan (Washington heights and inwood). We partner with public nycdoe schools, colleges, universities, and industry partners in education, finance, stem, the arts, and health fields. We serve students in primary and secondary public school partnerships, offering full-service youth programming in nycdoe sites when schools are not in session, including afterschool, saturdays, school vacations, and summer. Our program model for younger youth centers on social-emotional learning, individualized academics such as tutoring and literacy interventions, and enrichment including sports, career exposure, stem, and the arts. This model provides 500 additional hours of academics and enrichment each year. We employ older youth at every level of our organization, including as interns, program staff, and organizational leaders. We close the young adulthood experience gap by providing 500 hours each year of mentoring, networking, and career development skills through paid internships and job placement. In fy25, our key program accomplishments included: (1) a 100% percent four-year high school graduation rate in schools with a 99 percent poverty rate; (2) at our flagship school, 100% of the graduating class enrolled at a 2 or 4-year institution; (3) delivery of 500 extra hours of academic and extracurricular experiences to 1,500 students in the bronx, brooklyn, and Washington heights (4) expansion to an additional program in the bronx. These experiences provided access to (1) literacy support through tutoring, books, and computers; (2) wellness programming including healthy meals, social-emotional learning, and team sports; (3) career development through paid internships, jobs, financial life skills, and stem mentorship; and (4) arts programming including dance, media production, visual arts, and trips to cultural institutions.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 83.1%; rating input score 83
• Program expense ratio: 89.7%; rating input score 90
• Fundraising efficiency: $181.15 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • 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: 7.4%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.47; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.52; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 12.3%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 9.9% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 14.3% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings