Arms Around Asd
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 464239709
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2020
- Location
- Asheville, NC, USA
- Phone
- 8284247604
- Rating
- 97
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Animal-Related N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $121,327
- Expenses
- $122,167
- Assets
- $69,771
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Rich Johston (Board President)
- Michele Louzon (Executive Director)
People named in this filing
- Rich Johston (Board President)
- Joan Walker (Board Secretary)
- Jason Hadley (Board Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of Arms Around ASD is to support the autism community through self-care and development of executive functioning skills promoting the growth of the community as a whole. Arms is unique in that we provide services for people on the autism spectrum regardless of age, ability or income AND their families, care providers, support staff and other professionals (teachers, doctors, nurses, therapists, etc.) who work with them. Everyone who works with AAASD is a volunteer. From our acupuncturist to our Zumba instructor, front desk person to executive director, we all have our arms around autism spectrum disorder. Arms is one giant hug to families who seek our services.
What it reported doing in 2025
Third Program Service Accomplishments Description (Socialization Skills) Autistic people sometimes need to learn how to engage friends or may be overwhelmed by the idea of new experiences. They may have outbursts and throw tantrums or express themselves inappropriately in social contexts, essentially due to their difficulty to either understand a social situation or make themselves understood by others. Services provided include various social groups with regular meet-ups and outings, educational navigation, relationship/dating classes, sex education classes, transitions navigation, bird watching/nature experiences, pet therapy and a music listening group. Approximately 200 people benefitted from these services in 2025.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 80% 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
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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 100
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 36
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -0.7%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.57; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 32.7%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 24.2% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.9% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 27.3% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $122K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 28/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 42/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.