Spartanburg Academic Movement
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 452104341
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2011
- Location
- Spartanburg, SC, USA
- Phone
- 8645735804
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $14,396,774
- Expenses
- $5,201,803
- Assets
- $21,223,148
- Liabilities
- $1,617,047
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
19 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- DR RUSSELL BOOKER (CHIEF EXEC O): $176,880 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Spartanburg academic movement is an "all-in" partnership of schools and colleges, businesses, governments, foundations, faith communities and individuals across spartanburg county in pursuit of high levels of educational achievement. The collective mission is we ensure spartanburg county's children and youth reach academic and life success by convening partners, aligning resources and advancing opportunity for all.
What it reported doing in 2024
The history and a detailed description of sam's program accomplishments are available on the organization's website: www.learnwithsam.org. The spartanburg academic movement (sam) is both a non-profit organization and a collaborative impact movement using data and research to identify achievement gaps, work with community partners to reduce and remove those gaps, and ultimately create better opportunities for all, anchored in academic achievement. Sam was formed in 2013, combining the work of the children's services alliance and the college hub to create the cradle through career perspective for community building and action. Sam works to ensure that children and youth reach academic and life success by convening program and service delivery partners, aligning resources, and advancing opportunity for all. Sam specifically monitors academic achievement indicators: kindergarten readiness, third grade reading, eighth grade math, college/career-ready high school graduation, postsecondary enrollment, and postsecondary persistence and completion. To date, sam has built collaborative action/collective impact partnerships with well over 150 program and service providers across the many sectors impacting children, youth and families: academic/schools, healthcare, social services and supports, government and housing agencies. We engage these partners with one another and our data to implement action plans that respond directly to the needs of the children/families/communities we serve. We use the strivetogether (www.strivetogether.org) impact model and theory of action to guide the process. Sam offers training in continuous improvement practices through its wardlaw center for improvement science, providing partners a data-driven approach for tracking impact and guiding future action planning. Sam also offers training through the center for resilient schools and communities by working with spartanburg county families, schools, and communities to build supports and systems that increase children's success, particularly in neighborhoods where educational disparities exist.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 87% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 88% 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 - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filed totals do not add up.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 61
- Transparency & Controls: 72
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 86
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 35.3%; rating input score 35
- Program expense ratio: 95.1%; rating input score 95
- Fundraising efficiency: $148.3 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 98.9%; rating input score 99; 31st 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 63.9%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.08; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.4%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 28.2% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 33.6% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 33.5% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 35.3% of revenue deployed · 95.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 18 of 18 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $4.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $177K · 19 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 33 of 34 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 18 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 35/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.