Junior Achievement of Southeastern Pennsylvania
To inspire and prepare young people to believe they have the power to own their economic future.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
JA Company Program
JA Company Program empowers high school students to fill a need or solve a problem in their community and teaches them practical skills required to conceptualize, capitalize, and manage their own business venture. Community volunteers and mentors provide real-world guidance and experience to the student-led startup.
Objectives of the program include:
*Collaborate with team members.
*Make crucial business decisions.
*Communicate with multiple stakeholders.
*Develop entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.
Where we work
External reviews

Videos
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Pennsylvania Department of Education and Banking and Securities regularly report that only 15% of school districts in Pennsylvania require a personal finance class to graduate and even less provide quality internships. Our students are not exposed to a variety of career opportunities or given the life concepts necessary to properly finance their futures. We can all agree that the optimal time to teach these skills, like working with money, making the connection between education and careers, and entrepreneurship is when learners are young. Not teaching these concepts to young people now is a failed opportunity that will have a societal cost down the road.
Our JA Career Pathway Initiative delivers hands-on, engaging materials directly to the classroom both in-person and virtually. Delivered by trained volunteers, students gain a memorable experience learning about how to manage money, start a business and exposure to multiple career opportunities, giving them hope and direction for their future. By “pathways,” we mean that JA programs are designed to engage students over multiple touchpoints, from a student’s first day in kindergarten until graduation, preparing them for the transition to post-secondary education and work, and adulthood.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Everything Junior Achievement does is to create a world in which young people have the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities. In the last year, Junior Achievement has pivoted to meet community needs as evidenced by the education gap caused by the pandemic and an increasing inequity in access to economic opportunity. As a result, JA continues to be committed to activities that spur community development through economic mobility; we will work to empower and support more students and families to own their financial future and to increase access and bridge gaps to inclusion. Junior Achievement will continue the foundation started in 2020-21 to become a more strategic education partner by developing scalable, customizable progressive learning experiences that create efficient and effective volunteer engagement, resulting in greater impact. There will be three priority impact measures as part of this strategy.
Learning Experience
Reimagining what experiential student engagement looks like using the latest research/methods and understanding of blended learning model to engage today’s youth.
Community Impact
Build a diverse workforce pipeline that reinforces individual and corporate connections to the community and its needs in ways that will help companies and communities elevate and attract top talent.
Economic Mobility
Activities that spur economic development while seeking to put curriculum and resources into household that otherwise would not have access to education, encouragement, and community mentorship.
Pilot the JA Pathways Model: Experiences over multiple grades preparing students for the transition to post-secondary education and work – building behaviors, skills, and competencies to receive certification that represents their achievements.
Refine a hybrid, synchronous delivery model utilizing volunteers that will be able to pivot to meet the needs of education partners. These experiences will be aligned with state and local curricula requirements and allow for JA to provide a variety of learning experiences based on student’s needs.
Expand “out of classroom” experiences to remove access issues and provide a more equitable experience for the region’s young people. This will include JA Inspire Virtual, JA Connect, JA Company Program, JA Titan, and JA Career Speaker Series.
This will lead to a future state of “Connecting the Drivers for Economic Competiveness”. Today’s complexities require a new approach to integrate all of the factors within education that will position students for opportunity and choice-filled lives.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Junior Achievement of Southeastern Pennsylvania
Board of directorsas of 10/06/2022
Mr. Bassam Awadalla
Bank of America
Term: 2021 - 2022
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/18/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.