2018-07-13T09:39:08-07:00 2017-08-31 SCHALL & ASHENFARB CPAS 307 5th Ave 15th Floor NEW YORK NY 100166517 990 2016-09-01 273238471 America Achieves Inc AMER 6468546083 100 West 33rd Street New York NY 10001 Jon Schnur Exec. Chairman 2018-07-13 true Michael Schall P02024184 2122682800 2016 2022-09-23 18:48:47Z Jon Schnur 95 Morton Street Ground Fl New York NY 10014 10809055 false false X www.americaachieves.org X 2010 NY America Achieves is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring young people get the best possible education and preparation to lead and succeed in a changing world. 7 6 80 6 0 14340636 10765674 70288 9570 2796 826 39540 32985 14453260 10809055 688030 974565 0 7572825 4389127 0 529653 9986326 3955915 18247181 9319607 -3793921 1489448 6491596 7690513 1000931 740769 5490665 6949744 America Achieves has built a successful accelerator model helping experienced, entrepreneurial leaders successfully launch and scale nonprofit initiatives aimed at policy or systemic impact. The organization is now building on its track record and expertise, and responding to unprecedented shifts in the economy. After completing a strategic review, the organization decided to focus its unique core capabilities on aligning education and skills to economic opportunity, especially the evolution and future of work. The organization is looking to apply its incubation, accelerator and field building work in service of helping a diverse population access the education and skills needed for upwardly mobile careers while helping employers address priority workforce needs. America Achieves mission is to create clear pathways for economic advancement, civic engagement, and success for all in a rapidly changing economy. The organization catalyzes large-scale impact by activating cross-sector leade false false 7557612 974565 9570 Results for America (RFA) is improving outcomes for young people, their families, and communities by promoting evidence-based, results-driven solutions. RFA has become a leading voice in advancing and driving evidence-based policy change, increasing awareness and building credibility for the practice among more elected officials and policymakers, particularly around the insufficient use of data and evidence in policy making and decision making. Results for America transitioned to become an independent 501(c)(3) organization in October 2016, a validation of the strength of RFA's track record and of the America Achieves accelerator model.CollegePoint is dedicated to increasing the number of high-achieving, low- and moderate-income students enrolling in top-performing colleges from 1/3 of 75,000 students in 2014 to more than 1/2 by 2020. America Achieves quarterbacks a coalition of non-profit organizations and philanthropic institutions and leads the ongoing assessment and improvement of the CollegePoint model. CollegePoint reached 12,000 Class of 2017 students. We significantly increased the number of students reached over last three years, growing from 1,300 Class of 2016 students to 8,300 Class of 2016 students to 12,000 in the Class of 2017. We have also deepened collaboration with the American Talent Initiative in order to increase the number of low- and moderate-income students at top schools by 50,000 by 2025.GripTape envisions a future in which youth-driven learning is a powerful force. A world where all young people have the opportunity to pursue their own interests; demonstrate their confidence and competence by seizing their own learning; and where youth demand and are afforded respect for their own learning pursuits. GripTape:Amplifies youth desire to pursue their own learningMakes resources directly available to thousands of youth, both in the present through the Challenge, and in the future as alumniFosters youth to youth connections for purposes of recruiting and supporting learningCreates, evaluates and refines the conditions needed for youth to drive their own learning so that we can do more to create those conditionsEmpowers and facilitates young people to lead both GripTape and a broader movement of youth-driven learningGripTape has completed 3 rapid learning cycles and started its fourth, with full research plans for each, and developed an information network of 100+ partners who provide guidance and support.Fellowship Programs: America Achieves also sought to promote models to accelerate educational excellence in schools, and has laid a foundation by engaging motivated teachers, principals, parents and superintendents through fellowships and networks to ensure its strategy is grounded in the view and practices of diverse educators. Programs in this area included:The America Achieves Educator Voice Fellowship. Founded in 2011, the Fellowship has developed a best-in-class program to support top teachers and principals to elevate their voices to influence public conversation and policy, with a network of 500+ Fellows nationally. Today, the Fellowship is creating networks of educators to be champions of effective approaches to better link education to jobs and careers. The Fellowship successfully launched the Louisiana program in September of 2017, the first of its kind to focus on creating tools and resources and developing and leveraging best practices bridging education and the workforce, developing a curriculum that will expose all students to career opportunities aligned with 21st-century skills. The Fellowship also concluded a successful year in NY and CO, where Fellows published 17 policy proposals, one of which became CO state law.Global Learning Network: GLN brings together world-leading, innovation-oriented high schools to understand the changing global economy and implications for career readiness and high school design and practices. From September 2016 to August 2017, the Global Learning Network enabled approximately 100 U.S. schools to participate in the online version of the OECD Test for Schools, an international benchmarking tool; hosted a national convening with approximately 240 participants from schools that participated in the OECD Test for Schools; and developed a Massachusetts specific professional learning community of schools that desired to learn from their benchmarking results. As part of this work, GLN also selected 30 exemplary high schools from 6 countries as "Global Learning Network World-Leading Learners" in order to recognize their performance and to share the promising practices in these schools that ensure their students are prepared for career and lifelong success. 7557612 true true false true false false false false false false true false false false false true true false false false true true false false false false false true true true false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false true false false false false false true 176 0 true 80 true false false false false false false false false 0 false false false false false false false false false false X 7 6 false false false false false false false true true false false true true true true true true true true false NY X X Diane Ford 6468546083 100 West 33rd Street 917 New York NY 10001 Jon Schnur Exec. Chairman 20.00 0.00 X X 27785 0 14782 Gil Dickoff Dir., Treasurer 1.00 0.00 X X 0 0 0 Ed Cohen Director 0.75 0.00 X 0 0 0 Jean Desravines Director 0.75 0.00 X 0 0 0 Louise Langheier Director 0.75 0.00 X 0 0 0 Keith Frome Director 0.75 0.00 X 0 0 0 Claudia Aguirre Director 0.75 0.00 X 0 0 0 Diane Ford CFAO 40.00 0.00 X 198330 0 23446 Peter Kannam Managing Partner 40.00 0.00 X 281352 0 6705 Laura Parkin Managing Partner 30.00 0.00 X 240900 0 16449 Patrick Bryden Sweeney Taylor CEO, College Access & Success 40.00 0.00 X 224502 0 12473 Mark Murphy CEO, GripTape 40.00 0.00 X 238471 0 24625 Michelle Jolin CEO, Results for America 30.00 0.00 X 199752 0 789 David Medina COO, RFA 40.00 0.00 X 234650 0 11725 Brett Kimmel CPO,College Access 40.00 0.00 X 213230 0 23731 Simone Brody ED, WWC RFA 40.00 0.00 X 220207 0 13275 Jade Grieve Chief of Staff 40.00 0.00 X 209502 0 12173 Karen Anderson Sr. Advisor, RFA 40.00 0.00 X 211085 0 3924 2499766 164097 11 false true false Blue Engine Message & Media Inc 1140 Connecticut Ave NW Washington DC 20036 Comm. Consultant 422161 Education Counsel 101 Consitution Avenue NW STE 900 Washington DC 20001 Strategic Planning 417000 Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP 425 Lexington Ave 8 New York NY 10017 Legal 253619 NORC at University of Chicago 55 E Monroe Suite 2000 Chicago IL 60603 Data Mgt. & Research 225298 NextWave Advocacy 4301 N Fairfax Dr 320 Arlington VA 22203 Comm. Consult 193165 17 10765674 10765674 Earned Income 611710 9570 9570 9570 826 826 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other revenue 611710 32985 32985 32985 10809055 9570 33811 X 751371 751371 173194 173194 50000 50000 0 1235990 1051240 103123 81627 0 2471395 1535123 621022 315250 38669 22978 10420 5271 392768 266919 81284 44565 250305 173949 49340 27016 0 95805 95805 0 0 0 0 2444755 2351178 89121 4456 2046 2046 93484 64969 18426 10089 0 0 293349 203862 57825 31662 971644 912829 49098 9717 0 0 0 0 3863 3863 19147 19147 Member dues and subscriptions 22528 22528 Miscellaneous 9294 9294 0 9319607 7557612 1232342 529653 381485 318247 1781153 3122626 4096658 4073081 0 0 0 10800 3930 0 102137 60319 15544 4646 6482 10898 0 0 0 0 112881 101412 6491596 7690513 1000931 740769 1000931 740769 X 141783 262071 5348882 6687673 5490665 6949744 6491596 7690513 X 1489448 -30369 X false true X true false X 22843597 20120140 9978357 14340636 10765674 78048404 0 0 22843597 20120140 9978357 14340636 10765674 78048404 54592231 23456173 13030 8375 14741 2796 826 39768 0 39540 33811 73351 78161523 159727 0.30010 0.29630 X Current Year Facts and Circumstances: Although America Achieves failed to meet the 33.3% test, it meets the 10% facts and circumstances test in Treasury Regulations section 1.170A-9(f)(3).First, as demonstrated on its Schedule A, America Achieves received 30.01% of its total support over the past five years from contributions made directly or indirectly by the general public. Second, America Achieves is organized and operated so as to attract new and additional public or governmental support on a continuous basis. America Achieves maintains a continuous and bona fide program for solicitation of funds from the general public and carries on activities designed to attract support from governmental units or other publicly supported organizations. America Achieves maintains a development team dedicated to identifying and securing new sources of funding for its programs. During the measurement period, partly as a result of our ongoing development and fundraising efforts, America Achieves received support from 46 different donors. This was made possible by our fundraising efforts targeting, continuously reaching out, and regularly submitting proposals to potential new donors.During its first few years of operations, America Achieves received significant support from one private foundation, even while we also had in those first few years additional donors, publicly available services and free materials for educators from across the United States. More recently, that foundation has provided a much smaller fraction of America Achieves support, and America Achieves has secured robust funding from an even more diverse range of sources with public support. Of the 46 different donors America Achieves received support from in FY17, 10 were new funders whose annual contributions to America Achieves ranged from $300 to $765,000. These 10 new funders were all new to the organization and were first time donors. These Funders included foundations, corporations and individuals from 5 different states. These new relationships continue to enable America Achieves to attract additional funders and develop updated fundraising plans. Based on research and qualification of prospective donors, the development team has identified 28 potential new additional donors including 9 foundations, 14 corporations, and 5 individuals as new fundraising targets. Our team continues to regularly reach out and submit new funding proposal to potential new donors. Third, America Achieves has a governing body which represents the broad interests of the public. The Board has active committees (such as the Audit and Compensation Committees) chaired by respected and experienced independent non-profit leaders. Its board members are unrelated to one another and together bring many decades of experience in the fields of non-profit leadership, philanthropy and education to their work guiding their governing responsibilities for and programs of America Achieves. Board members contributed management and financial expertise as well. Finally, America Achieves provides services directly for the benefit of the general public on a continuing basis. As described on its Form 990, America Achieves operates programs to support educators and students across the country. These programs engage tens of thousands of beneficiaries and have the support of community leaders, schools, educational officials as well as parents and students in every region of our nation. For example, the Global Learning Network, over time has involved 516 public schools 33 states participating in our in-person meetings or webinars. Typically, each participating school system and school involves a good number of educators in this work. With our team working hard to engage the media and public in this work, the Global Learning Network has generated media attention informing the general public and other educators from at least 50 different newspapers and radio stations in 13 states. Meanwhile, the Educator Voice Fellowship has supported over 600 outstanding teachers and other educators from 34 states with our full Fellowship programand has created educational resources and materials. These materials have been made freely available to teacher professional development, in every grade level and used or viewed online by over 40,000 educators.Moreover, our Raise the Bar Parent Program has created free content to help promote parental involvement in their children's education. This content is now an important subset of information provided by one of the largest parental involvement non-profit organizations in the country (Learning Heroes)which is making high quality parental involvement information to millions of parents across the U.S. In addition, the CollegePoint program has organized a coalition of non-profit organizations to directly serve over 35,000 high school juniors and seniors nationwide. These services include free college advising to help them apply to, get accepted to and enroll in well-matched colleges and universities across the United States. This includes over 8,000 students during the 2015-16 school year and over 12,000 in the 2016-17 school year and more than 12,000 students in the 2017-18 school year. Results for America (RFA) is improving outcomes for young people, their families, and communities by shifting public resources toward promoting evidence-based, results-driven solutions. RFA has become a leading voice in advancing and driving evidence-based policy change, increasing awareness and building credibility for the practice among more elected officials and policymakers, particularly around the insufficient use of data and evidence in policymaking and decision making. RFA has built a strong, bipartisan coalition of 134 high-level decision-makers from nonprofits, philanthropy, and government, as well as 220 disparate stakeholders from the public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors into an Invest in What Works coalition. RFA focused its policy efforts to shift funds at the federal level to an evidence-based approach while simultaneously building expertise in the process through adding Senior Fellows to build internal capacity and strengthen its expertise; crafting public policy recommendations; and working with the Invest in What Works Coalition to inform approaches to public policy. Results for America offers tools, trainings, and opportunities to learn and share what works regarding data and evidence across all levels of government, including new work globally, such as its annual federal Invest in What Works Index released in April 2016. Results for America is transitioning to become an independent 501(c)(3) organization in October 2016-- a validation of the strength of RFA's track record and of the America Achieves accelerator model.Finally, America Achieves has made available free to the public, a large number of additional important educational reports, studies, case studies of excellent schools. We have also distributed this information to thousands of educators and others. They continue to be available for free on our website. These include, "Expectations and Reality: Good and bad news about how well U.S. students are prepared for success in our changing world" and "Middle Class or Middle of the Pack: What can we learn when benchmarking U.S. schools against the world's best," which have been covered by such prominent national columnists as Tom Friedman and Frank Bruni.For these reasons, America Achieves meets the facts and circumstances test in Treasury Regulations section 1.170A-9(f)(3). Prior Year Facts and Circumstances: Although America Achieves failed to meet the 33.3% test, it meets the 10% facts and circumstances test in Treasury Regulations section 1.170A-9(f)(3).First, as demonstrated on its Schedule A, America Achieves received 29.63% of its total support over the past five years from contributions made directly or indirectly by the general public. Second, America Achieves is organized and operated so as to attract new and additional public or governmental support on a continuous basis. America Achieves maintains a continuous and bona fide program for solicitation of funds from the general public and carries on activities designed to attract support from governmental units or other publicly supported organizations. America Achieves maintains a development team dedicated to identifying and securing new sources of funding for its programs. During the measurement period, partly as a result of our ongoing Development and fundraising efforts, America Achieves received support from 36 different donors. This was made possible by our fundraising efforts targeting, continuously reaching out, and regularly submitting proposals to potential new donors. During its first few years of operations, America Achieves received significant support from one private foundation, even while we also had in those first few years additional donors, publicly available services and free materials for educators from a RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED false false false 1000000 1000000 2000000 3000000 250000 250000 500000 750000 15544 4646 10898 10898 X 10778686 -30369 -30369 10809055 10809055 9319607 9319607 9319607 Part X : FIN48 Footnote The Organization does not believe its financial statements include any material, uncertain tax positions. Tax filings for the periods ending August 31, 2014 and later are subject to examination by applicable taxing authorities. Europe 0 0 Grantmaking Program Support 50000 50000 50000 Europe Support for PISAU 50000 Wire Txfr 1 false false false false false false true Curry School of Edu Fdn PO Box 400276 Charlottesville VA 22904 510201344 501(c)(3) 50000 0 Program Support Instit for College Access 405 14th Street Suite 1100 Oakland CA 94612 201368860 501(c)(3) 25000 0 Program Support Northwest Evaluation Assoc 5885 SW Meadows Road 200 Lake Oswego OR 97035 930686108 501(c)(3) 190000 0 Program Support ScholarMatch 849 Valencia St San Francisco CA 94110 454985621 501(c)(3) 158906 0 Program Support Scholarship America One Scholarship Way Saint Peter MN 56082 042296967 501(c)(3) 317465 0 Program Support UP for Learning PO Box 63 East Hardwick VT 05836 472894356 501(c)(3) 50000 0 Program Support 6 0 Stipends for Educators & Fellows 110 72060 Advisor Stipends 8 8000 Initiative Stipends 4786 93134 Grantmaker's Description of How Grants are Used Once an agreement is reached, the program lead or other designated person from America Achieves and the partner organization will agree on a plan to maintain close communication to ensure that America Achieves understands progress made and any challenges of the ongoing work. America Achieves does not require the partner organization to report on all of their activities. However, we focus on the most significant metrics of progress. The frequency of communication and measurement depends on the type of work. At the end of the project, the partner will work with the program officer or designated person at America Achieves to submit a final report that summarizes the results achieved. X true false X X X X false false false false false false false false false false Brett Kimmel CPO,College Access 213230 3681 20050 236961 David Medina COO, RFA 234650 3164 8561 246375 Diane Ford CFAO 198330 4210 19236 221776 Jade Grieve Chief of Staff 209502 4218 7955 221675 Karen Anderson Sr. Advisor, RFA 211085 3116 808 215009 Laura Parkin Managing Partner 240900 4015 12434 257349 Mark Murphy CEO, GripTape 238471 3253 21372 263096 Michelle Jolin CEO, Results for America 199752 789 200541 Patrick Bryden Sweeney Taylor CEO, College Access & Success 224502 4518 7955 236975 Peter Kannam Managing Partner 281352 5627 1078 288057 Simone Brody ED, WWC RFA 220207 3014 10261 233482 Part I, Line 1a: Relevant information in regards to selections on 1a. Office stipend rates are consistent and standard for any employee who does not live within commuting distance of an America Achieves office. Form 990, Part VI, Line 11b: Form 990 Review Process Management reviewed a draft of the Form 990 with the audit/finance committee and provided edits to the tax preparer. After this process was performed, the Form 990 was sent to the full board of directors prior to being filed with the IRS. Form 990, Part VI, Line 12c: Explanation of Monitoring and Enforcement of Conflicts The organization has a board approved conflicts of interest policy. Prior to each board member's service with America Achieves, a conflict of interest statement must be completed stating they had no conflicts or identifying the nature of their interested party transactions. In addition, to the required disclosure, a Rebuttable Presumption policy was incorporated in July of 2015. Each member is under an obligation to the organization, to inform the organization of any potential conflict when a decision is being made. Any possible conflict of interest on the part of any member shall be disclosed to the Executive Chairman and made a matter of record as soon as the issue in question is raised and a possible conflict is known. When the board is to decide upon an issue about which a member has an unavoidable conflict of interest, that member shall be absent from the vote. Disclosure and abstention shall be recorded in the minutes of the meeting(s) at which the issue is discussed and decided. Form 990, Part VI, Line 15a: Compensation Review & Approval Process - CEO, Top Management A compensation summary which includes research and comparable data will be completed for the CEO and top management official at date of hire, upon a request to change and annually. This process will document America Achieves effort to assess the reasonableness of Compensation. Form 990, Part VI, Line 15b: Compensation Review and Approval Process for Officers and Key Employees A compensation summary which includes research and comparible data will be completed for all employees that are designated officers, directors, and highly compensated at date of hire, upon a request to change and annually. This process will document America Achieves effort to assess the reasonableness of Compensation. Form 990, Part VI, Line 19: Other Organization Documents Publicly Available Governing documents are not made available to the public. Other Changes In Net Assets Or Fund Balances - Other Decreases Transfer of assets = -$30369 CollegePoint LLC 100 West 33rd Street 917 New York NY 10001 Program Support DE America Achieves Inc false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false