Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
250355180
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Phone
8772675222
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,122,335
Expenses
$2,079,963
Assets
$1,658,048
Liabilities
$871,477

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • WARREN KING (PRESIDENT/CEO THRU DEC 2025)
  • KATE SULLIVAN (PRESIDENT/CEO AS OF JAN 2026)

Highest reported compensation

  • WARREN KING (PRESIDENT/CEO THRU DEC 2025): $155,846 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To be the leader in advancing marketplace trust. We do this by setting standards for marketplace trust, encouraging and supporting best practices by engaging with and educating consumers and businesses, celebrating marketplace role models, calling out and addressing substandard marketplace behavior, and creating a community of trustworthy businesses and charities.

What it reported doing in 2025

The better business bureau's (bbb) core services in advancing marketplace trust are: - we are proud to provide consumers with access to 114,600 business profiles, helping them identify trusted companies throughout our 28-county service area. By rating local businesses based on their reliability and performance, we offer a valuable resource for the community. In 2025 alone, consumers visited our site over 1.8 million times to find reputable businesses.see schedule o for additional program accomplishments.- bbb's dispute resolution program conciliated over 6,403 complaints against businesses filed by consumers within our service resulting in 78.09% response rate.- there were nearly 5,636 customer reviews filed against local businesses which provides feedback in our business profiles helping consumers to make educated buying decisions.- bbb scam tracker - an online tool that enables consumers and businesses to report scams in an effort to prevent others from falling prey to similar cons, had over 1,984 scams reported by consumers. - there were over 691 media mentions related to the bbb and our efforts in protecting consumers and businesses in setting standards and best practices for business.- provided our local 3,800 accredited businesses member services that include request a quote, business profiles viewed, website views, customer reviews and dispute resolution.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 99% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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 the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 72
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 80.9%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 81.5%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • 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: 2%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.8; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.53; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.5%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.5% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 80.9% of revenue deployed · 81.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $156K · 11 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 33/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.