Catalyst Education Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
822628337
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
New Orleans, LA, USA
Phone
7132137046
Rating
67
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Management & Technical Assistance

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$21,054,832
Expenses
$11,025,222
Assets
$16,959,203
Liabilities
$1,457,377

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Leona Christy (CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • Leona Christy (CEO): $260,517 total reported compensation
  • Rachel Klein (Partner): $223,925 total reported compensation
  • Meladee Evans (Partner): $222,859 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To mobilize and leverage the collective expertise in education to strengthen schools, school systems, and education nonprofits to ensure equity and excellence for all kids.

What it reported doing in 2024

Over this period, catalyst: ed helped 251 schools, school systems, and nonprofits connect with and leverage specialized technical assistance to build organizational capacity. Specific activities included: (1) conducting consultations with organization leaders to help them diagnose their challenges and identify specific high-leverage projects where they can benefit from expert help (2) facilitating connections with a curated list of providers with the right mix of skills and experiences needed for capacity building project (3) granting funds to support the completion of projects, and (4) post-project completion, capturing lessons through our reflection and feedback process. To enable this work, catalyst: ed continued to support its network of 798 providers. 84 percent of projects that were matched in this period fully met their goals and 11 percent mostly met their goals. Catalyst: ed also generated several memos and reports based on its work to inform the field.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% 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 total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 61
  • Transparency & Controls: 63
  • Accountability: 77
  • Sustainability: 69
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 44.7%; rating input score 45
  • Program expense ratio: 83.9%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $40.88 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 86.7%; rating input score 87; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • 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: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 47.6%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.54; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.8%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 32% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 35.9% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 23.7% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 44.7% of revenue deployed · 83.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $9.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $261K · 15 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.2M reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 45/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 52/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 12/100.