College Success Arizona

“The form 990 is prepared by an outside accounting firm and then reviewed by the board of directors and approved by the president/ceo and executive committee before it is filed with the irs.”

“The board of directors are required to complete and sign conflict of interest questionnaires annually. The ceo and treasurer review and approve all transactions of the organization according to the organization's conflict of interest policy. Any potential conflicts of interest would be detected during the review and approval process. The procedures stated in the conflict-of-interest policy would be followed to deal with any issue arising.”

“The board of directors review external compensation/benefit information in making the determination each year if salary increases are warranted for the president/ceo based on performance and experience.”

“The organization does not make its articles of incorporation, bylaws, conflict of interest policy, or financial statements available to the public. It may provide documents upon written request. Form 990 is available to the public on guidestar or upon request.”

“Education forward arizona (edforwardaz) is a leading organization dedicated to advancing educational attainment and equity across arizona. Our vision is to create an arizona where education is the foundation for individual prosperity and collective progress. By establishing strategic partnerships and elevating the voices of underrepresented communities, aligning well with other educational advocacy efforts within the state, edforwardaz plays a critical role in shaping the state's educational landscape. Our overall organizational goals are as follows: - develop ownership of common statewide expectations for student success and galvanize support for improved outcomes on education progress meter indicators. - reach the statewide attainment goal by 2030, starting with early learning and working through an aligned p-20 continuum. - close opportunity and achievement gaps at all levels. - advocate for state-level funding that is allocated more intentionally to those most in need of additional resources. Summary of 2024 organizational results and accomplishments education forward arizona continued its work in 2024 to create a cohesive case for education and how it benefits all arizonans, align knowledge and interests to create more effective approaches and increase accountability, and build public and political will for dramatic education improvement. Education forward arizona stands as a nonpartisan, united and trusting voice of education in arizona to fight for the education system we all want. Achieving our goals requires a large-scale effort to mobilize the education sector, business leaders, community leaders, and the public to drive dramatic education improvement. Our approach includes providing direct services to reduce challenges and meet urgent needs of students today and leading advocacy initiatives to unite stakeholders, address root causes, and create lasting change for years to come. Education forward arizona began 2024 with momentum driven by the billions to gain economic impact report and the expansion of the everything to gain campaign, which accelerated our efforts in focusing on educational attainment across the state. With ambitious goals and a focus on strategic priorities, the team achieved notable impact, empowering educators, engaging more arizonans, and driving progress toward arizona's achieve60az goal of increasing educational attainment for a stronger economy. Specifically in 2024, pursuing the attainment goal known as achieve60az under a strategic theme of "attainment amplified: driving action towards achieve60az", the organization established and focused on three priority areas: 1. Leading the narrative: raising awareness and elevating the importance of educational attainment through strategic communications. 2. Advocating for equitable opportunity: supporting students' success via policy and legislative goals. 3. Building capacity for impact: strengthening internal systems, fundraising, and operational foundations. Across these priority areas, education forward arizona achieved significant milestones: - directed millions in scholarships and success services, celebrating our 1,000th scholar graduate, and launching a groundbreaking workforce initiative. - grew the everything to gain digital network by almost 5,000 influencers, leaders, and members of the public. - conducted three impactful public opinion polls, influencing thousands of education and community leaders. - assisted approximately 40,000 students and their families with fafsa guidance and trained hundreds of college access professionals. - improved data collection and reporting, delivered our most successful fundraising event ("inspired evening"), and advocated for key policies supporting access and attainment. We also achieved key programmatic successes in 2024, including scholarship expansion and new initiatives, student success services and college access programming, memberships, sustainability and revenue generation, and national and state”

“- produced six education explainers and advocacy alerts, reaching thousands of advocates with actionable resources to promote education funding and policy solutions. - increased azcan membership from approximately 1200 to 1400 individuals, across approximately 600 schools. - spotlight: advocacy posts on fafsa completion and dual enrollment resulted in thousands of impressions, engagements and site visits, empowering advocates to influence key policy decisions. Overall impact for this priority area: through these efforts, education forward arizona led a unified, strategic response to the budget shortfalls that threatened critical educational programs. By collaborating with influential partners and grassroots advocates, the organization helped secure critical local funding and advanced dialogue with policymakers, laying the groundwork for future budget improvements and policy changes. Priority area: building capacity for impact: strengthening our organizational foundations - we achieved significant successes through efforts focused on organizational leadership and succession planning, advancing revenue goals and holding expenses below plan with financial integrity, enhancing data-driven decision making, optimizing it infrastructure, and supporting staff development and retention. - spotlight: the organization preserved continuity and enhanced oversight of critical financial and operational functions while preserving zero audit findings or internal control concerns as a single auditee managing federal grant requirements; raised significant new funding for unrestricted operating support (including a fundraising event that exceeded expectations), while meeting a match requirement for a key funder (helios education foundation) and thereby unlocking $1m for future impact; deployed new data visualization tools to empower teams to forecast future needs and optimize decision-making; reduced reliance on external consultants by building internal expertise; and used gallup employee survey data to boost staff engagement, enabling greater contributions to organizational goals. Overall impact for this priority area: throughout 2024, education forward arizona fortified its organizational infrastructure through strategic initiatives, achieving greater financial sustainability, operational efficiency, and enhanced staff capacity. With a solid foundation, the organization is well-positioned to drive meaningful impact in arizona's education landscape in 2025. Programmatic highlights and results education forward arizona's student and educator focused programming remained a vital piece of the organizations mission to increase education outcomes and the quality of life for all arizonans, and a key piece of the sustainability model for the organization. In 2024, we saw growth in all continuing programs, and delivered on our promise to systemically evaluate each program for relevancy, sustainability, and impact when faced with renewal and continuation decisions. In 2024 we experienced several programmatic accomplishments, including: 1. Scholarship expansion and new initiatives - awarded a record 641 scholarships, totaling $2.9 million, including 300+ for native american students funded by the freeport-mcmoran native american scholarship program. - launched the first-ever graduate student scholarship program with a cohort of 15 students. - partnered with aliento to administer the updated adelante scholarship program. - selected to administer the $1m helios 20th anniversary transfer scholarship program. - received aps commitment to triple scholarship funding through doe grant award. - spotlight: reached 1,000 scholars graduated over the past 19 years, underscoring long-term impact. 2. Student success services and college access programming - successfully provided three unique student success opportunities: the leadership symposium, etiquette dinner, and career days. - launched a new multi-year, $1.1m workforce development and education pathways partners”