Alumni & Friends of LaGuardia

Legal name: The Alumni and Friends of Fiorello H Laguardia High School Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
133166108
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2125951301
Rating
69
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,450,057
Expenses
$1,041,851
Assets
$16,749,906
Liabilities
$5,584

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

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • PETER BAKSTANSKY (PRESIDENT)
  • BENJAMIN FLAIM (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • KAREN KRAMER (ALUMNI DIRECTOR): $128,978 total reported compensation
  • ROSE AUSTIN (DIRECTOR): $55,251 total reported compensation
  • ROBINDRA DEB (DIRECTOR): $35,895 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To support the students and programs of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

What it reported doing in 2024

School support in the form of department grants, master classes, instrument repair, performance support, digital media program and in-kind donation: department grants - a&f give annual, unrestricte grants to equip each art studio with the latest technology, equipment and supplies.master classes - a&f provides funds for guest artists and master teachers to enhance artistic programming through first-hand, specialized industry knowledge. Master teachers have included members of the New York philharmonic and the metropolitan opera; renown jazz musicians; lead dancers from the american ballet theater, the joffrey ballet, New York city ballet, dance theater of harlem, alvin ailey, american ballet theater and martha graham dance company; and internationally recognized artists. A&f pays for special accompanist for vocal classes, dance classes, musical theater classes and performances. This funding also provides a stipend for private lessons for students with financial needs.instrument repair - laguardia has a fully-staffed instrument repair shop that manages the majority of repairs on school and personnal instruments. A&f provides annual funding for the instrument repair shop.performance support - performance is a key component of the education at laguardia high school. A&f maintains special funds to support the technical theater department so that it can support the 50+ productions at the school each year. This includes funding for the annual musical.in-kind equipment donations - a&f procures donations of equipment such as instruments, cameras, specialized flooring for dancers, and theatrical lighting that the school cannot purchase due to budget restrictions.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 83% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 96% 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 most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 49
  • Transparency & Controls: 87
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 85
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 30.7%; rating input score 31
  • Program expense ratio: 68.3%; rating input score 68
  • Fundraising efficiency: $69.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 92.5%; rating input score 93; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 84.6%; rating input score 85; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 69.8%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 16.08; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21.1%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 30.7% of revenue deployed · 68.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 13 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $711K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $129K · 14 people listed
  • Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 31/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.