Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 611397946
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Sanford, NC, USA
- Phone
- 8476071040
- Rating
- 51
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Recreational l Clubs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,451,441
- Expenses
- $1,343,765
- Assets
- $1,654,331
- Liabilities
- $298,184
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Tushar Shembekar (President)
- Robert W Fulton III (President Elect)
People named in this filing
- Tushar Shembekar (President)
- Mark van Niftrik (Director)
- James N Grace III (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. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) is a not-for-profit membership organization established to educate, promote the safety of and support the owners and pilots of certified aircraft manufactured by Cirrus.
What it reported doing in 2025
COPA membership grew to over 6,900 paid members in 2025. COPA members receive access to an online virtual community as well as a monthly magazine. The online website provides discussion forums, event calendars, blogs, knowledge repository, and multimedia files. The Cirrus Pilot magazine published 600 pages annually of articles about enjoying flying & Cirrus technical and safety information.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 96% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 0
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 51
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
- Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.4%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.23; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.18; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -41.5% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 12 of 13 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2012 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: 2 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 51/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.