Friendship Aspire Arkansas Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 823957417
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Little Rock, AR, USA
- Phone
- 5015009336
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $19,421,520
- Expenses
- $19,192,752
- Assets
- $4,412,745
- Liabilities
- $65,711
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Joe Harris (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Joe Harris (CEO): $210,000 total reported compensation
- Phong Tran (Superintendent): $192,718 total reported compensation
- Scott McRae (Dir. of Finance): $124,848 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To provide world-class education that motivates students to achieve high acadamic standards, enjoy learning and develop as ethical, literate, well-rounded and self-sufficient citizens who contribute actively to their communities.
What it reported doing in 2024
Provided world-class education that motivates students to achieve high academic standards, enjoy learning and develop as ethical, literate, well-rounded and self-sufficient citizens.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 98% 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. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 60
- Transparency & Controls: 60
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 38
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 67.2%; rating input score 67
- Program expense ratio: 68%; rating input score 68
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- 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: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- 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: 1.2%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.5%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 18.5% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 25.8% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 67.2% of revenue deployed · 68% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $13.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $210K · 12 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.7M reported
- Consistency: 17 of 17 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.