Center of Excellence for Educator Preparation and Innovation Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
384190832
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Columbia, SC, USA
Phone
8542227243
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Education N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$8,357,327
Expenses
$8,572,767
Assets
$5,815,087
Liabilities
$1,363,282

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DAMARA H MITCHELL (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)

Highest reported compensation

  • CINTHIA WOLFE (DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION & LEADERSHIP DEV.): $124,630 total reported compensation
  • DAMARA H MITCHELL (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $109,583 total reported compensation
  • TONDALEYA GREEN JACKSON (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $100,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The center of excellence for educator preparation and innovation develops and sustains an in-to-end teacher pipeline. By upskilling educators to leverage data-driven, innovative strategies tailored to each learner, the epi center prepares teachers to create transformative educational and economic opportunities for lasting impact in classrooms and communities.

What it reported doing in 2024

The rewarding educator achievement and performance (reap) initiative is designed to improve educational quality, strengthen educator effectiveness, increase student achievement, and advance equity in fairfield county school district and georgetown county school district. In october 2024, the epi center received approximately $6.5 million in year 2 funding under its three-year, $26.7 million u.s. Department of education grant. The initiative supports more than 850 educators and nearly 11,000 students across 26 schools in the two partner districts. Through collaboration with fairfield and georgetown, the center implements two integrated service tiers. The first uses a comprehensive, data-driven human capital management system to attract, retain, develop, and reward effective educators. The second provides resources and sustained professional development for teachers and school leaders. Together, the service tiers address talent management, high-quality educator evaluation, performance-based compensation, professional growth pathways, principal leadership networks, instructional coaching for new teachers, and educator career ladders.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 69% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 73% for direct work, and 27% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 80
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 93%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 90.6%; rating input score 91
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 40.3%; rating input score 40; 14th 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: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -2.6%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.68; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 3.9%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 80.6% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 60.2% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 109.9% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 93% of revenue deployed · 90.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $7.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $125K · 7 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.4M reported
  • Consistency: 33 of 34 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 10 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 7 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 40/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.