Heritage Christian Academy
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 260624806
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Fort Collins, CO, United States
- Phone
- 970-494-1022
- Rating
- 92
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,495,389
- Expenses
- $2,532,010
- Assets
- $1,722,359
- Liabilities
- $718,905
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ZACH POOL (Vice President)
- DAVID LACEY (President)
Highest reported compensation
- MICHAEL P CUCKLER (ADMINISTRATOR): $99,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of Heritage Christian Academy is to offer authentic faith, academic excellence, and a nurturing environment. Heritage Christian Academy strives to provide students with highly effective educational experiences, where students are equipped to reason critically and Biblically and take responsibility for their own growth as servant leaders with a Biblical Christian worldview impacting their world for Christ. NURTURING ENVIRONMENT Heritage Christian Academy works to create a dynamic Christian community in which all parent, student, and staff members—past, present, and future—feel welcomed, respected, and valued for their individual Christian testimonies and collective engagement in the ongoing growth and stability of the school and the people it serves.
What it reported doing in 2024
To provide non-denominational christian education opportunities in fort collins and the northern Colorado region.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 72% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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
STRONG - 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: 99
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 31
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 99.9%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: $170.29 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 91; 91st 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: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.5%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.68; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.42; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.9%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 99.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $99K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and related organizations
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- 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 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 28/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.