Upbeat Academy Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 461269947
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2016
- Location
- New Orleans, LA, USA
- Phone
- 2255717617
- Rating
- 62
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $505,941
- Expenses
- $23,115
- Assets
- $483,256
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- DANTE DIPASQUALE (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- ANDREW CLEMENTS (SECRETARY)
- CHARLES COEPENING (EXECUTIVE DI)
- DANTE DIPASQUALE (PRESIDENT)
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
The upbeat academy mission is to provide underpriviledged, at-risk with an opportunity to learn how to produce and perform electronic dance music and hip-hop. The organization also seeks to introduce its students to the business side of the music industry, offering real-life experience, case studies, and opportunities to meet their favorite musicians
What it reported doing in 2025
Since 2012, upbeat academy foundation has provided free music production programming to over one hundred underserved middle and high school students from over ten different schools in the greater new orleans area. One hundred percent of students who have successfully completed upbeat academy's program have also attained all necessary credits for high school graduation. To date, five upbeat academy graduates have gone on to pursue music production degrees at the collegiate level, with two of these graduates returning to upbeat as paid instructors. Students will again be performing at this year's buku music + arts project in new orleans. Upbeat academy has recently expanded our efforts to provide music enrichment for incarcerated youth in orleans parish prison's juvenile detention center and beginning in the summer of 2018, upbeat will partner with covenant house, a shelter for runaway youth, to provide weekly music production workshops at their orleans facility. For inquiries or more information about our program please contact: [email protected]
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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 - 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: 36
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 64
- Sustainability: 94
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 4.6%; rating input score 5
- 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: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 95.4%; rating input score 99; 99th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 20.91; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 25.1% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 34.8% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 4.6% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $23K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 17 of 17 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 5/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.