Arizona Freedom Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
863784512
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021
Location
Gilbert, AZ, USA
Phone
6022288277
Rating
67
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$328,840
Expenses
$321,910
Assets
$86,558
Liabilities
$520

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • ERIC PORTEOUS (Executive Dir.): $91,800 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Foundation's mission is to foster independent journalism and provide the general public with access to news, research and information not covered by traditional corporate media outlets. To that end, the Foundation operates AZ Free News (www.azfreenews.com), an online news site that offers reporting, analysis and occasional commentary on a wide array of local news stories in Arizona. Although some national and international news stories are compiled from reputable third party news sources (such as the Wall Street Journal), the site consists primarily of original local news content generated by journalists and analysts commissioned by the Foundation.

What it reported doing in 2025

Research: The organization contracts with a Researcher on an ongoing basis. This person is responsible for initiating public records requests and doing other necessary research as needed for the journalists to ensure that they have the proper facts and documents. By performing these duties, the Researcher helps the journalists to be more efficient and focus on telling the stories that the people of Arizona need to hear. In 2025, the Researcher filed multiple public records requests to assist with these stories and assisted with research on dozens of stories and investigative pieces.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 0
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 86%; rating input score 86
  • Program expense ratio: 87.9%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: $17.03 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 2.1%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.27; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 28.5%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 15.2% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 86% of revenue deployed · 87.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 4 board members independent · 0 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $283K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $92K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 41/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.