Beta Group

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
812227583
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2016
Location
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Phone
6122096691
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Small Business Development

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$489,970
Expenses
$394,548
Assets
$69,252
Liabilities
$14,200

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Cihan Behlivan (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Cihan Behlivan (Executive Director): $105,664 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To accelerate the success of founders of Minnesota-based technology startups.

What it reported doing in 2024

Twin Cities Startup Week is a week long conference entailing many different startup education events. The conference attracts 1200 attendees and offers 180 sessions in 25 locations around the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities Startup Week is a community run event that offers promotion, exposure, and learning for all business owners who attend. The Beta Cohort is a free non-dilutive accelerator program that puts founders front and center to Minnesota's technology and innovation community. Together, founding teams learn, work, and grow our state's next great businesses. There are twenty companies that are part of the cohort which meet over four months. Cohort founders gain valuable insight on how to grow and scale their companies while Beta's community provides access to their resources and relationships required to achieve major milestones.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 74
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 67.9%; rating input score 68
  • Program expense ratio: 84.3%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $47.27 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 19.5%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.18; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 26.8%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.9% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -3.5% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 67.9% of revenue deployed · 84.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $333K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $106K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

Key Signals

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

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 10/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.