The Folk School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 452974643
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2018, Form 990-T 2024, Form 990-N 2012
- Location
- Fairbanks, AK, USA
- Phone
- 9074571219
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $292,492
- Expenses
- $309,670
- Assets
- $584,625
- Liabilities
- $344,885
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Gordon Williams (Vice President)
- Randall Rozier (President)
People named in this filing
- Kuowei Lee (Board Member)
- Gordon Williams (Vice President)
- Douglas Bishop (Treasurer)
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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Folk School, in keeping with a 200-year-old tradition, is dedicated to enriching lives and building community by passing on skills and personal knowledge in a nurturing environment. The Folk School provides year-round, affordable programs in a variety of hands-on disciplines
What it reported doing in 2024
Maintaining a non-competitive, nurturing, multigenerational educational model that fosters the use of indigenous materials and provides unique learning opportunities, and hones skill-based crafts such as woodworking, sewing, art, cooking, music, creative writing, and more. Providing an organizational structure and space for regular, ongoing home-school classes and activities. Serving as a meeting place for clubs and organizations. Establishing long-term programs that encourage community involvement. Providing space for families to create and learn together in a healthy, slow-paced, hands-on way. Creating a slow, creative, thoughtful space where people of all ages can learn skills that take time, patience, and basic human connection.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 67
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 70
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 65.6%; rating input score 66
- Program expense ratio: 61.4%; rating input score 61
- Fundraising efficiency: $105.84 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- 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: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- 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: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -5.9%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.89; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.59; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.3% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 10.3% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 26.8% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 65.6% of revenue deployed · 61.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $190K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 28/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.