Former Foundation Presidents address financial irregularities
Two Canyon Crest Academy (CCA) high school students identified potential financial wrongdoing at the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation (CCAF) and published their findings in The Ravens For Transparency report (www.RavensForTransparency.org). The report identified two main problems: arbitrary, undocumented automatic deductions and unauthorized CCAF salary – related deductions from the Robotics team .
Official responses from the CCA istration and Foundation have not fully explained the irregularities or mysteries. Their claim that their filings are transparent and self-evident are just not true. Review of the CCAF financial statements available on the CCAF website (www.canyoncrestfoundation.org) indicate that there is a much larger, more pervasive problem.
According to CCAF financial statements from 2019-2023, CCAF did not use almost $4 million in restricted donations from parents and other donors as directed. In fact, these restricted donations were not used at all. Not only is the Robotics team losing revenue to the Foundation, but so are the Athletics teams and the Envision programs. The CCAF has knowingly and repeatedly taken vast sums of money away from student programs. Every year for the past five years.
First, to address the automatic deductions across all restricted s (STEM, Athletics and Envision), there is a 25% automatic deduction from all restricted donations, as stated by the CCAF, to cover general and shared expenses within the restricted program area.
However, it is apparent that there are not enough actual general or shared expenses and as a result, the automatically deducted 25% of every donation has piled up in cash s. As of June 30, 2023, the cash balances were $138,000 in the STEM cash , $349,936 in the Athletics cash and $272,420 in the Envision cash .
Additionally, the CCAF did not return any unused restricted (not “in perpetuity”) donations to the origin program but instead transferred the cash into an unrestricted . The transferred amounts are described in Note 4. Net Assets with Donor Restrictions in the Notes to Financial Statements in the CCAF Financial Statements.
Over the past five years, the CCAF transferred almost $1 million per year of unused restricted donations to an unrestricted cash . This is completely unacceptable practice for a nonprofit education foundation. As former donors, we are outraged! And todays CCA parents should be too. Whether donating to their children in baseball, dance or robotics, they trusted that the CCAF would use their restricted donations for those programs appropriately. Unless a forensic audit is conducted, there is no way to know the exact amounts each program is due.
Second, according to the Ravens For Transparency report, the CCAF surreptitiously deducted CCAF staff salaries from the Robotics team , and we can only assume from other teams as well. Salaries should not be deducted from student-related restricted s. With $1.5 million in unrestricted s, there is plenty of money to pay salaries. During our tenure, salaries were deducted from the unrestricted , not student-related restricted s like Robotics, Athletics and Envision.
As parents of former CCA students, we understand parents’ frustration. We all want to our children and give them the best opportunities. So, parents should continue to their children’s academic, artistic and athletic endeavors and until the CCAF resolves its significant problems, there are ways for parents to better control their donations.
Options for parents and other donors
• If you want your donation to remain in the category in which you donated, you need to indicate that your donation is “in perpetuity” so that your money is used as you directed for future students in that program category (STEM, Athletics and Envision).•If you do not wish to have 25% automatically deducted from your donation allocated to the general/shared expenses , then you need to make a donation to the Ravens Fund and indicate (in writing) that you want 100% of your donation to be “restricted” to the program of your choice, again, “in perpetuity”.• You must make your donation in the form of a check and include a letter to best ensure compliance. And then you will need to follow up with your program and the CCAF to make sure that your donation was properly recorded.
Marty Foltyn, CCAF President and Board Member 2010-2014Amy Caterina, CCAF President and Board Member 2013-2015 and CCA Site Council 2019 – 2021
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