College Bound St. Louis
Legal name: A Million Stars Inc Dba College Bound
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 204768985
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- St. Louis, MO, US
- Phone
- (557) 223-7890
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,010,913
- Expenses
- $2,899,416
- Assets
- $6,412,779
- Liabilities
- $113,203
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MILTON MITCHELL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- MILTON MITCHELL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $200,509 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Through an individualized, holistic, and multi-year investment, College Bound empowers students in St. Louis facing systemic barriers to achieve transformative lives of higher education and economic possibility.
What it reported doing in 2025
College bound's to and through is a comprehensive, seven-to-nine year program that has proven successful in helping promising low-income first-generation (neither parent graduated from a four-year college) students get into and graduate from college at over five times the rate of their peers.college bound's to and through college preparation programming for high school students builds a foundation for success at selective four-year institutions through the development of academic competencies and social skills. Beginning at the end of 9th grade, college bound provides students with weekly opportunities, week-long intensives, and summer institutes and workshops that strengthen capacities in math, writing, critical thinking and test taking. During junior year, students receive intensive act preparation and take the act. College bound students also regularly participate in extracurricular activities, such as community service and cultural opportunities, to develop non-cognitive skills that support academic achievement and dgree completion in school.additionally, college bound's college access programming prepares students for application and entry at selective colleges that closely match their interests, aptitude and financial resources. Programming includes a compentency-based college knowledge curriculum, financial literacy coursework, pre-collegiate summer opportunities, college tours, residential application institutes, 1:1 completion sessions for the federal application for student aid (fafsa), and one-on-one college and financial aid counseling sessions.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 63% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 50
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 75.8%; rating input score 76
- Program expense ratio: 75.9%; rating input score 76
- Fundraising efficiency: $7 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- 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 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 3.7%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.21; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.9%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.1% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 75.8% of revenue deployed · 75.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 22 of 22 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $2.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $201K · 23 people listed
- Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 24/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.