The Ablegamers Foundation Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
300533750
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2012
Location
Kearneysville, WV, USA
Phone
7038919017
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Science and Technology N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,627,000
Expenses
$2,738,748
Assets
$2,324,345
Liabilities
$270,857

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MARK BARLET (PAST PRESIDENT)
  • CHRISTOPHER POWER (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • MARK BARLET (PAST PRESIDENT): $199,222 total reported compensation
  • CHERYL MITCHELL (SECRETARY): $148,784 total reported compensation
  • ANDY WU (SR. DIR. PEER COUNSELING): $130,737 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The ablegamers foundation mission is to enable play in order to combat social isolation, foster inclusive communities, and improve the lives of people with disability.

What it reported doing in 2024

Peer counseling: ablegamers peer counseling program consists of players with disabilities and occupational professionals who work together to find the best solutions for people with disabilities to enable play. Peer counseling sessions serve as a starting point for granting the hardware, custom controllers, and specialized equipment/technologies that can be prohibitively expensive. The ablegamers engineering research program compliments the peer counseling program by prototyping and creating new controllers and devices, offering unique and customized solutions for players when barriers to current commercially available products exist.peer counseling directly supported individuals with disabilities through one-on-one sessions of peer counseling support, resulting in reduced barriers to play. Additionally, the program provided individuals with assistive technology and equipment. Within peer counseling, the powered by ablegamers program provided training, funding, and equipment to hospitals and assistive technology centers. Partner facilities included ability kc, craig hospital, shepherd center, mount sinai hospital, dell children's medical center, boston children's hospital, cincinnati children's hospital medical center, and nationwide children's hospital.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 71% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 55
  • Accountability: 86
  • Sustainability: 18
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 67.1%; rating input score 67
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 19th 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: 9.8%; rating input score 10; 26th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -68.3%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.85; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 25.9%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 22.7% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 19.6% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 67.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $199K · 12 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 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 — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 10/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 9/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 9 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.