L.E.A.D. Academy Montgomery
Legal name: Lead Education Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 823528049
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2018–2020
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2020
- Location
- Montgomery, Alabama, USA
- Phone
- 334-451-3127
- Rating
- 88
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Elementary, Secondary Education, K - 12
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,385,239
- Expenses
- $5,922,654
- Assets
- $1,341,745
- Liabilities
- $1,925,511
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2020. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CHARLOTTE MEADOWS (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- RYAN CANTRELL (BOARD MEMBER)
- BEN FARROW (BOARD MEMBER)
- WILLIAM GREEN (BOARD MEMBER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2020. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To provide a high-quality education that prepares students for college and career success.
What it reported doing in 2020
Lead academy - a charter school in montgomery, Alabama providing innovative programs designed to spark curiosity, maximize learning potential, and continuously improve student achievement by empowering students with 21st century skills.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 93% 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
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: 100
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 17
- 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: $2,068.79 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 98; 98th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -10%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.44; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 78.9% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 74% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 70.7% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 99.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2018 to 2020
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 9/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 6/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 2/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.