Junior Achievement of Arizona
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 860184349
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Tempe, AZ, USA
- Phone
- 4803778500
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- International Economic Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,518,170
- Expenses
- $5,894,771
- Assets
- $11,294,273
- Liabilities
- $858,626
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
21 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Katherine K Cecala (President & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Katherine K Cecala (President & CEO): $391,811 total reported compensation
- Anne Landers (Chief Operating Officer): $223,606 total reported compensation
- Elizabeth Clements (VP People & Technology): $196,656 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Junior Achievement of Arizona (JAAZ) equipped 176,772 students, Kindergarten through Young Adults, this year with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in work and life. Through our 9,135 programmatic volunteers, JAAZ's critical programs help kids see their potential and give them the skills and knowledge they need to step into that potential. Students are prepared to think critically, manage their money, thrive in their careers, and ultimately pursue the future they deserve.
What it reported doing in 2024
JA Finance Park is Junior Achievement of Arizona's second capstone experiential learning program, designed to equip middle school students with essential personal financial management skills. Over the course of 14-20 hours of classroom instruction, students explore topics such as budgeting, income, saving, credit, taxes, insurance, and the relationship between education and earning potential. The program culminates in a hands-on virtual simulation, where students are assigned a fictional life scenario-including job, income, family status, and expenses-and must create and maintain a balanced personal budget. This immersive experience helps students understand the real-world implications of financial decisions and prepares them to navigate future financial complexities with confidence. This year, 3,735 students from 36 schools participated in JA Finance Park. Post-program assessments show an average 39% increase in financial literacy knowledge, demonstrating the program's effectiveness in building foundational financial skills. The program was delivered with the support of 600 volunteers from the business community, as well as parents and educators, who donated their time and mileage to mentor students through the simulation. The estimated value of this volunteer contribution is $290,761, which is not reflected in Part IX expenses but is noted here to highlight the cost-efficiency of our volunteer-driven model. Including the value of volunteer time increases our program expense ratio to 88%, underscoring the strategic advantage of leveraging community expertise to deliver high-impact financial education.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 84% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.8%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 80.6%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.74 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.7%; rating input score 95; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 89.6%; rating input score 90; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- 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: 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: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -6.8%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.92; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 27.8%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.6% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 87.8% of revenue deployed · 80.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $4.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $392K · 21 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 49 of 50 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
- 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.
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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 25/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 17/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.