Copa Safety & Education Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 465678983
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Sanford, NC, USA
- Phone
- 9177163876
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,023,515
- Expenses
- $780,157
- Assets
- $798,471
- Liabilities
- $96,484
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mark Waddell (President)
- Chuck Cali (President)
- John Gressett (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Mark Waddell (President)
- Bruce Kaufman (Secretary)
- Stephen Locke (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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The copa safety and education foundation raises funds through charitable contributions and uses those funds to enable the copa training foundation, llc to operate programs that develop and disseminate education and training activitiesthat support the safer operation of general aviation aircraft.
What it reported doing in 2024
The copa training foundation llc conducted copa university in-person and onlinetraining events in the us, and europe. These events were attended byapproximately 1,250 pilots and partners. The in-person training eventsincluded ground instruction, simulator experiences and recurrent flighttraining. All live training events also provided credit for faa wingsparticipants.copa university training materials cover safety, maintenance, weather, aeronautical decision making, flight operations, avionics, and flighttraining. These training materials are consistently updated to include, forexample, lessons learned from current accident and incident data the copa sef also purchased new flight simulator equipment for use by the copatraining foundation in its copa university training events to address new and updated avionics.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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 most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 55
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 65
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 74.5%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 97.6%; rating input score 98
- Fundraising efficiency: $233.09 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
- 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: 7 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 23.8%; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.02; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.7% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 74.5% of revenue deployed · 97.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 7 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $761K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: 3 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 43/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.