Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
800326026
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2018
Forms available
Form 990 2018, Form 990-N 2008
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2022237012
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Economic Development

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$18,865,815
Expenses
$19,063,664
Assets
$512,993
Liabilities
$507,528

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2018. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

22 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • J MICHAEL DEAL (CEO/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • J MICHAEL DEAL (CEO/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $203,149 total reported compensation
  • LONG NGUYEN (MANAGING DIRECTOR, FIN & ADMIN): $197,862 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2018. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To mobilize our alliance's 100,000 highly-skilled volunteers to stimulate sustainable economic growth in emerging markets.

What it reported doing in 2018

Vega programs use a combination of approaches to ensure impact and sustainability, including the use of on-the-ground support for volunteers and the coordination of activities with other local projects and associations. Depending on project needs, volunteers provide technical assistance on varying short and long-term bases, assisting a diverse suite of clients which includes firms, associations, research institutions, municipalities, and other public or private sector groups. Vega is leveraging expert volunteers from 25 leading economic growth organizations to conduct programs in 17 countries throughout the world. These programs serve to stimulate economic growth in developing nations and include the following programs: afghanistan - capacity building and change management program (cbcmp ii), afghanistan - assistance in building afghanistan by developing enterprises (abade), albania - financial sector development program, moldova - technical assistance to the national bank of moldova, nigeria - grain quality improvement program for maize, bosnia - workforce and higher access to markets activity bosnia/herzegovina, egypt - food security and agribusiness support (fas), lebanon - investment in microfinance (lim), liberia - investing for business expansions (ibex), mali - financial technical assistance program (fintap), cambodia - capacity building of local government, sri lanka - vega/biz+, sri lanka - you lead, tanzania - feed the future tanzania enabling growth through investment and enterprise program (engine), ukraine - credit for agriculture producers (cap), yemen - competitive agriculture systems for high value crops, john ogonowski farmer-to-farmer, uzbekistan/kazakhstan, laos, uganda, mexico - emerging markets development advisers program (emdap).

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 100% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 99% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The required major-donor schedule is missing or incomplete and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 91.6%; rating input score 92
  • Program expense ratio: 90.6%; rating input score 91
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: No; rating input score 0
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.03; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.99; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 2.1%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -9.6% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 0.4% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 91.6% of revenue deployed · 90.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $17.3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $203K · 22 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2010 to 2018
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 13 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 11 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Major donor itemization scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 8/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.