Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
203779020
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2010, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Phoenix, AZ, USA
Phone
4803329636
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Adult, Continuing Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$207,147
Expenses
$135,157
Assets
$322,129
Liabilities
$180

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

People named in this filing

  • JOAN KOERBER-WALKER MBA (CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD)
  • ROBERT DUNAWAY JD (SECRETARY)
  • ED NUSBAUM (DIRECTOR)

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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The opportunity through entrepreneurship foundation (otef) educates and invests in people and organizations that create hope. Our programs include education for small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs, programs to support students in exploring future careers, and our azadvances initiative which supports the creation and commercialization of Arizona-based health innovations.

What it reported doing in 2025

Volunteers from the Arizona bioindustry association provided 1:1 mentoring sessions to small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Our student discovery zone program (part of our azadvances talent program) provided high school and university students the opportunity to connect with industry leaders and showcase their research projects. As part of this program, merit-based scholarship prizes were competitively awarded. Two university students were employed as part time student interns in 2025 for 3 months each. The azadvances capital program made no investments into early stage life science companies in 2025. Our current mission related investment portfolio includes three investments from 2023. These equities will be held by otef and the future investment proceeds remain with otef. On dec 29, 2022, the Arizona state board of investment approved a contract with the Arizona state treasurer's office (asto) for otef to receive ongoing distributions from the Arizona health innovation trust fund to support its charitable purpose and to perform specified services as set forth in a.r.s. 41-177. The first distributions from asto will begin in 2027. $75,000 in support was provided from the state of Arizona in 2025. Beginning in 2025, the organization entered into a fee for service contract with the Arizona bioindustry association to provide mission related entrepreneurial education and workforce development services on behalf of the association.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 87% 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 a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 62
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 76
  • Sustainability: 72
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 58%; rating input score 58
  • Program expense ratio: 87.9%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • 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: 34.8%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.38; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 52.3% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 58% of revenue deployed · 87.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 2 of 2 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $119K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.