Student American International
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 061450817
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
- Phone
- 8432228406
- Rating
- 64
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- International Cultural Exchange
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $575,091
- Expenses
- $532,750
- Assets
- $47,592
- Liabilities
- $34,166
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
1 person listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MELISSA POLOS (CEO)
People named in this filing
- MELISSA POLOS (CEO)
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
Student american international (sai) was established in 1996 as an outgrowth of friendships made during exchange experiences. Sai was designed to promote the idea that we can help make the world a more peaceful place if we recognize the difference between various cultures and work to understand and celebrate those differences, person to person. Through its academic homestay program, students, host families, schools, and communities learn daily about one anothers differences and similarities. Sai believes that as generalities and stereotypes give way to real personalities, participants are able to see beyond ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural differences to establish ongoing relationships based on understanding and acceptance. High school students ages 14 to 18 spend one school year or semester in the united states. Students live with a volunteer host family and participate in daily family life while attending the local high school. The international partner organization and sais c
What it reported doing in 2025
Placement of students in home stay for 5-10 months to pursue a full course of study at acredited institutions
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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 6
- Sustainability: 35
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 92.6%; rating input score 93
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 0%; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.4%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.09; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.72; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -1.3% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -2% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -16.5% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 92.6% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 0 of 3 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $533K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 1 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
- 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.
- High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 8/100.