Freedom Prep Academy

Legal name: Freedom Prep Academy-mesa

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
843060365
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Gilbert, AZ, USA
Phone
(480) 256-2642
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Charter Schools

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,575,223
Expenses
$4,052,870
Assets
$4,509,024
Liabilities
$1,046,706

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ROBERT STERLING KELLIS (PRESIDENT/CHARTER REPRESENTATIVE)

Highest reported compensation

  • ROBERT STERLING KELLIS (PRESIDENT/CHARTER REPRESENTATIVE): $174,779 total reported compensation
  • LAURA OLIVER (GOVERNING BODY): $113,992 total reported compensation
  • KRISTOFER KELLIS (EMPLOYEE): $106,592 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Freedom Prep Academy is a public Arizona Charter School and complies with Arizona law and statute including open meeting laws.

What it reported doing in 2024

The school is dedicated to providing motivated students the opportunity to achieve academic excellence and develop life skills in a technology-rich, career focused, and safe learning environment taught by caring and knowledgeable educators. We at the school hold ourselves and our students to high expectations while providing a multi-age learning environment, small class sizes, and a unique comprehensive curriculum to approximately 525 students in kindergarten through twelfth grades.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 99% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 62
  • Transparency & Controls: 88
  • Accountability: 56
  • Sustainability: 59
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 61.3%; rating input score 61
  • Program expense ratio: 84%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 33.3%; rating input score 33; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • 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: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 27.3%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.11; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 9.8%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 24.8% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 32.1% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 57.1% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 61.3% of revenue deployed · 84% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 2 of 6 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $175K · 8 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 33/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 41/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule D revenue reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.