Biogenerator

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
830349805
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
St Louis, MO, USA
Phone
3146156355
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Biological & Life Sciences

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$8,693,429
Expenses
$8,955,184
Assets
$14,006,821
Liabilities
$23,439

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CRYSTAL WINKELER (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • DONN RUBIN (BOARD MEMBER/CHAIR/SEC/TREAS): $754,162 total reported compensation
  • CRYSTAL WINKELER (VICE PRESIDENT): $369,972 total reported compensation
  • BEN JOHNSON (BOARD MEMBER/SR VP OF OPERATIONS): $301,676 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 advance st. Louis' regional prosperity by cultivating a thriving biosciences sector. Biogenerator pursues this mission by producing for the region a robust pipeline of successful bioscience companies and entrepreneurs.

What it reported doing in 2024

Biogenerator investment staff offers commercialization guidance and advice on a subset of more promising concepts originating from university faculty or entrepreneurs about the commercialization process, and working with the individuals, helps to formulate a development plan by providing support in the form of advice and mentoring. It connects new businesses to professional services including law firms and accounting firms, recruits scientific and management talent and direct entrepreneurs to management training programs.biogenerator staff continuously network to seek out commercially promising technologies. They meet with university faculty, including Washington university, saint louis university, and the university of Missouri/st. Louis. They routinely network with corporations based in st. Louis with a focus on life sciences, such as monsanto, sigma aldrich, and mallinckrodt. Biogenerator also works with a variety of development partners including biostl, cic@cet, the donald danforth plant science center, cortex innovation community, Missouri technology corporation, the city of st. Louis, and st. Louis county.as a result, biogenerator staff invest considerable time in completing technical assessments on new technologies. This involves providing education to those involved on how to improve or further develop their technology, specifically as it pertains to meeting a need of the community. Biogenerator had over 100 technologies that were identified for consideration. The majority of these opportunities involved technologies licensed or emerging from universities or research institutions.

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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 89
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 32
  • Sustainability: 43
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 99.7%; rating input score 100
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • 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: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -3%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.56; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.4%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10.2% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 99.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 3 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $8.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $754K · 10 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.1M reported
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Related organizations: 4 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 53/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.