Sparks Volleyball Academy
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 813193843
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2024–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2023
- Location
- Castle Rock, CO, USA
- Phone
- 3143024297
- Rating
- 58
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Amateur Sports
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $297,803
- Expenses
- $314,654
- Assets
- $68,400
- Liabilities
- $46,586
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
2 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Ronald Sparks (President/CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Ronald Sparks (President/CEO): $19,240 total reported compensation
- Kahala Sparks (Director): $3,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Sparks Volleyball Academy strives to teach and develop youth and amateur volleyball players on the fundamentals of the sport and onto more intermediate and advanced skills should they desire to compete at higher levels. During this process, we also place emphasis on the attributes of being a great Team Captain Captain (i.e. honest, encouraging, respectful, passionate, hardworking and competitive) and on the importance of teamwork. Our goal with this combination of coaching and mentoring is to teach players the sport of volleyball and the characteristics of being a model citizen, teammate, student, competitor, and someday possibly a parent, co-worker, and great friend.
What it reported doing in 2025
Hosted a memorial volleyball tournament to raise funds for two other non-profit, charitable organizations. The tournament is open to the public and includes youth and adults who are able to play.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 90% of the money available for current operations came from other operating 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
MIXED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 59
- Accountability: 9
- Sustainability: 19
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 93.9%; rating input score 94
- Program expense ratio: 88.9%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $1.16 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 22
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -5.7%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.22; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.68; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.1%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 23.8% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 23.2% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -38.5% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 93.9% of revenue deployed · 88.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 0 of 2 board members independent · 2 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $280K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $19K · 2 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 8 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 7/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 6/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.