Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 233040116
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2020–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2013
- Location
- Bellevue, WA, USA
- Phone
- 4847165715
- Rating
- 71
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $90,352
- Expenses
- $37,426
- Assets
- $140,711
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Aidan Leahy (President)
- Geoffrey Wu (Vice President of Editing)
- Ganon Evans (Vice President of Editing (2024))
- Mia McGill (President (2024))
People named in this filing
- Aidan Leahy (President)
- Michael Bentley (Treasurer)
- William Grossman (Secretary)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
PACE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that runs the National Scholastic Championship (NSC), an annual national high school quizbowl tournament, and supports the quizbowl community through scholarships, awards, and other initiatives.
What it reported doing in 2024
Funded hsquizbowl.org, a website visited by thousands of people each day to learn about upcoming quizbowl events and discuss various quizbowl topics. Funding provided by Microsoft Azure Nonprofit Grant.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 80% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 94% 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 program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 59
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 76
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 38.7%; rating input score 39
- Program expense ratio: 93.4%; rating input score 93
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 58.6%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.76; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.2%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 10.9% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 66th 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: 38.7% of revenue deployed · 93.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $35K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.