Durango Adult Education Center

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
841118878
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Durango, CO, USA
Phone
9703854354
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$836,778
Expenses
$849,438
Assets
$1,893,937
Liabilities
$211,847

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • SUSAN HAKANSON (Executive Dir.): $74,546 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The mission of durango education center, as a caring learning community, is to fill educational gaps by providing the skills and knowledge necessary for livable wage careers, post-secondary education, and social and economic mobility.

What it reported doing in 2025

DAEC is the only Adult Education Center serving the five-county region comprising the Four Corners region of Colorado. DAECs main programs are English as a Second Language (ESL) and High School Equivalency programs (GED). Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2026, DAEC is a highly effective program offering in-person classes to students ages 17+ who, for many reasons, were not able to complete the "expected" path through school or find themselves in a country where they do not have the language or literacy skills to participate fully in social or economic offerings. In 2025, DAEC served 251 learners, with 232 active learners. 124 students worked toward their high school equivalency, and 32 students completed their GED. 108 students from 22 countries, speaking 10 different home languages and representing 5 continents, studied English. DAEC is the GED provider at the LPC Jail, serving 41 additional students there in 2025, with four (4) graduates in 2025. DAEC offers career counseling to all Students, past and present, including job-readiness and skill-building Opportunities. DAEC serves as an official Pearson Vue testing site, allowing many professional proctored exams to be taken in Durango instead of traveling to Denver or Albuquerque, proctoring 395 tests in 2025.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 69% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 94% 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 the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 76
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 78.3%; rating input score 78
  • Program expense ratio: 77.1%; rating input score 77
  • Fundraising efficiency: $26.09 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 22nd 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: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1.5%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.23; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.8%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.8% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -1.5% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 78.3% of revenue deployed · 77.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $655K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $75K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 28 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 41/100.