21St Century Partnership for Stem Education

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
261164919
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Wayne, PA, USA
Phone
6108255644
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Management & Technical Assistance

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,521,486
Expenses
$2,632,626
Assets
$321,294
Liabilities
$170,052

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • F JOSEPH MERLINO (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • JOHN BAKER (ASSISTANT PROJECT DIRECTOR/VP OF OPERATIONS): $147,384 total reported compensation
  • STEVEN KRAMER (PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR): $136,113 total reported compensation
  • VIVIAN WATT (CONTROLLER): $117,098 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The 21st century partnership for stem education is a non-profit organization that works both nationally and internationally with governments, institutions of higher education, school districts and other education entities to transform education, empower learners, and improve lives by advancing literacy and achievement in purpose driven science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem).

What it reported doing in 2025

The u.s. Agency for international development (USAID) contract provided 21pstem with the opportunity to pioneer an 18-step design process to create a fully integrated advanced stem high school curriculum for the egyptian ministry of education. The curriculum is backward designed from eleven grand challenges and utilizes related semester capstone projects. Twenty-0ne model stem high schools have been established. In addition, 21stem has co-developed five new stem teacher preparation programs at five egyptian universities involving the creation of 180 new courses involving 870 egyptian professors

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 94% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 71
  • Transparency & Controls: 55
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 12
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 81.4%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 78%; rating input score 78
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -4.4%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.12; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.53; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 25.9%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 81.4% of revenue deployed · 78% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $147K · 11 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $211K reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 16/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 4/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.