Young Americans Center For

“The difference in the number of voting and independent board members relates to the president/ceo. Per the 990 instructions, members who receive compensation from the organization or from related organizations are not considered independent. Because the president/ ceo is a salaried position, by definition he is not considered independent.”

“In april 2024, board of directors approved amendments to the center's bylaws and articles of incorporation relating primarily to updating corporate documents to align with the current provisions of the colorado revised nonprofit corporation act (crnca) and the internal revenue code (irc), and other clean-up items.”

“The center engages an accounting firm to prepare the 990. Management works closely with the firm during the preparation and provides various schedules. A draft is provided to management, who conducts a review and verifies that the information in the return is consistent with organizational records. After management's review is completed, the draft 990 is provided to the board of directors for review. The board of directors reviews it and any questions identified are resolved. Once the board is satisfied with the draft return, a member of the board provides a summary of the return and highlights any relevant or significant items. The board then has the ability to raise any additional questions. Once the board is satisfied, the draft 990 is then approved and provided in final form to management, signed and submitted to the internal revenue service.”

“The center's conflict of interest policy requires that the board and key employees disclose any conflicts annually. The annual disclosure forms are obtained and reviewed by the secretary of the board who makes a summary of any disclosed conflicts. Annually, the board reviews and approves any relevant conflicts. The organization is small enough and the board and key employees are well versed in the conflict rules, that an annual review/disclosure has been deemed sufficient. Annually, each employee of the organization receives a copy of the policy and also submits a conflict of interest disclosure form. The organization's executive management has a heightened awareness and ability to identify conflicts and ensure that the policy is complied with (e.g., looks for possible conflicts with new vendors). Additionally, the secretary of the board has been assigned responsibility for ensuring that all of the forms are obtained and reports to the ceo when that has been accomplished, and provides a summary of conflicts, if any.”

“The board chairs of young americans bank and young americans center for financial education working together are responsible for reviewing and determining the ceo/president's compensation. During q1 of each year the ceo prepares a series of management by objectives (mbo) that are presented to and revised by each board's executive committee. The mbo's and other organizational performance indicators are incorporated into an annual performance survey (aps). The aps along with the mbo are submitted to each board of director member in january for purposes of completing a survey assessing the ceo's prior year's performance. Separately, the ceo prepares a self-assessment of performance including mbo completion estimates. The compiled aps results, and the ceo's self-assessment are the primary resources used by the board chairs to develop an annual performance evaluation report. The performance evaluation report compares and contrasts the results of the aps with the ceo's self-assessment and that of the board chairs. The board chairs review with the ceo the completed performance evaluation report. The performance evaluation report includes base salary adjustments for the new calendar year and a bonus grant, if any, for the prior year performance which is disclosed during executive session of a board meeting following its completion. In determining the appropriate compensation range, adequate comparability data is obtained from the employer's council. Periodically, the ranges for all of the positions in the organization undergo an external review for appropriateness. The management team/key employees are the same for young americans education foundation, young americans center for financial education and young americans bank (which is an fdic insured bank for individuals under the age of 22 whose purpose is to educate children on banking products). Due to the significant regulatory side of the banking business, the ceo of young americans must have a background in both banking and non-profit management. As such, the appropriate range for the ceo/president is a blend of ceo salaries for banks and non-profits. The executive committee reviewed all of the salary ranges (including the ceo's) for appropriateness during the annual review conducted in december.”

“The ceo/president is responsible for the evaluation and salary recommendations for the vice presidents (including the treasurer/vp of finance and the secretary/vp of bank). Again, adequate comparability data is obtained from the employer's council. The table is provided to the ceo/president and approved by the executive committee. The ceo/president conducts the annual review of the senior vice presidents and makes salary recommendations consistent with the salary tables, which are approved by the governing board.”

“The organization's governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are made available to the public upon request. Each year, a packet is prepared which includes the relevant information and is distributed when requested.”

“The treasurer and the secretary of the board are considered officers of the organization according to the bylaws; however, they have no voting rights and are therefore excluded from the count of voting members of the governing body on form 990, part i, line 3.”

“Young americans center for financial education is committed to developing the financial literacy of young people through real-life experiences and hands-on programs purposefully designed to enable them to prosper in our free enterprise system. Since 1989, more than 926,700 youth have benefited from these nonprofit programs that build life skills, work skills, and financial self-sufficiency.”

“Three of the programs, young ameritowne, international towne, and rural young ameritowne, require a large amount of space to operate. Young americans education foundation (the foundation), a related entity, owns the three buildings that the center uses to run the programs. The buildings are located in denver, lakewood and wray, colorado. The foundation provides the spaces at no cost to the center. In addition, the center receives donated space from third parties to operate the on the road program. As such, the center has recognized in-kind rent in the 2024 audited financial statements totaling 1,701,356 for the free use of facilities. However, this in-kind revenue and expense is excluded on the tax return.”

“Young americans center for financial education also offers a variety of entrepreneurship training programs through our youthbiz division. Serving denver-area youth ages 11 to 18 with targeted focus on those from low-income, underserved schools and neighborhoods, youth learn the foundations of business and entrepreneurship enabling them to identify opportunities and to develop products and services that create value. Youthbiz offers two programs, startup and out-of-the-box. Startup is an entry level program designed to teach youth the basics of entrepreneurship including need identification, prototype development and business pitch. Youthbiz out-of-the-box takes students further into the production and sales cycles with real retail opportunities, such as our youthbiz marketplace. In 2024 youthbiz extended its reach beyond denver, bringing its vibrant marketplace to colorado's western slopes for the first time in years, serving 3,616 students.”

“The organization also conducted a variety of community outreach programming including money matters classes, tours and presentations. Rural young americans center for financial education, llc in wray, colorado offers rural young ameritowne to schools in eastern colorado and across the borders of kansas and nebraska. Students attended rural young americans in 2024. In addition, young americans center for financial education runs weekly day camps throughout the summer. Themes for the camps include personal finance and banking, free enterprise, global economics and entrepreneurship. Summer camp participation was 818 youth in 2024.”

“Young americans education foundation acts as a common paymaster for certain employees who allocate their time amongst more than one related entity. The number of w-2s reported on form 990, part v, line 2a include the number of employees who worked solely for the center plus the number of foundation employees allocated to the center.”

“Other professional fees 334,187 92,185 15,783”

“The process has not changed from the prior year.”