Empower College Prep
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 900717690
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ, USA
- Phone
- 6022835720
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $14,164,396
- Expenses
- $13,839,628
- Assets
- $23,123,309
- Liabilities
- $14,881,968
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- BRIAN HOLMAN (CEO/EX OFFIC)
Highest reported compensation
- BRIAN HOLMAN (CEO/EX OFFIC): $179,074 total reported compensation
- BECKY JONES (SCHOOL PRINC): $124,603 total reported compensation
- DAVID DILLMAN (DIRECTOR OF): $105,654 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Empower college prep exists to empower its children to compete academically with students from any school in the country, possess an awareness of how their knowledge and skills are used in the world, and be driven by and instilled sense of responsibility to develop their skills in college in order to maximize their impact in the world. Empower college prep will prioritize the partnership between the school, families, and the community to lead children to discover and develop their unique gifts, maximize their full human potential, and fulfill their responsibility to positively impact their world.
What it reported doing in 2024
Empower college prep educated more than 1000 students and about 90% of students served attend college after high school.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 95% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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 the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 79
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 46
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 89.4%; rating input score 89
- Program expense ratio: 91.4%; rating input score 91
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2.3%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.67; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.64; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 13.2% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 13.7% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 89.4% of revenue deployed · 91.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $12.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $179K · 11 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.5M reported
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2013 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 43/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 55/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 20/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.