Schools Advocating for Fair Funding FKA - Schools for Equity in Education
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 411814047
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- St Francis, MN, USA
- Phone
- 6123817127
- Rating
- 69
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $182,638
- Expenses
- $170,063
- Assets
- $39,907
- Liabilities
- $10,858
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Heather Naegele (President-Elect)
- DeEtta Moos (President)
People named in this filing
- Ashley Schabilion (Director)
- Mark Torkelson (Director)
- Scott Hansen (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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To advocate for policy that ensures all public school children have equal access to high quality education, regardless of where they live in Minnesota.
What it reported doing in 2024
Schools Advocating for Fair Funding (SAFF) served 45 member school districts and 3 associate education organizations during fiscal year 2024-2025. SAFF informed member districts of the impact and consequences of existing, proposed, and pending legislation, and disseminated school district and community education concerns to interested persons, groups, and associations concerned with school matters. SAFF works for equal access to a quality education for all of Minnesota's students regardless of the property wealth in their local school district, promotes legislation that ensures equitable distribution of school resources and advocates for a property tax system that is fair and provides equal access to referendum and bond revenue for low property wealth school districts, communities and their taxpayers.SAFF holds elected state officials accountable for adequate and equitable funding and policy that enables all students to meet state and federal academic standards and allows them to reach their highest potential.The organization educates and engages the parents, grandparents, community members, business leaders and everyone who values K-12 education in Minnesota to stand up and be a voice for our children and their schools.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 100% 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 a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 63
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 69%; rating input score 69
- Program expense ratio: 74.3%; rating input score 74
- 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: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: 6.9%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -4.1% per year; rating input score 0; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -0.8% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -5% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 69% of revenue deployed · 74.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $126K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 21 of 21 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 54/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.