Independence Academy
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 043748642
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO, USA
- Phone
- 9702558565
- Rating
- 71
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Charter Schools
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $6,491,284
- Expenses
- $6,678,089
- Assets
- $26,176,774
- Liabilities
- $25,045,616
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- LISA GONSALVES (ED): $120,913 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 independence charter school (iacs) is to educate students of diverse ages and backgrounds - helping them understand, thrive in, and enhance our community, our environment, and our world. Iacs regards learning as a continuing process and strives to provide an education that will enable students to live productive lives while achieving self-fulfillment and readiness for the future. Students are encouraged to think critically and act ethically with sensitivity to the human community. Iacs's philosophy stresses experiential learning and application within an interdisciplinary curriculum.
What it reported doing in 2024
Establish, equip, and maintain a charter school for elementary and secondary students.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 85% 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 46
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 44
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 51.1%; rating input score 51
- Program expense ratio: 52%; rating input score 52
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -2.9%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.92; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.96; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.8%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 25.4% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 51.1% of revenue deployed · 52% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $121K · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 51/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 52/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 6/100.