Bioone

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
522187678
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2022962296
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Engineering and Technology

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$12,823,538
Expenses
$11,407,981
Assets
$14,217,257
Liabilities
$6,995,540

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

Leadership & pay

19 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LAUREN KANE (PRESIDENT/CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • LAUREN KANE (PRESIDENT/CEO): $413,218 total reported compensation
  • CHRISTINE E ORR (SEN DIR. OF BUS. & COMM DEV.): $231,589 total reported compensation
  • ELIZABETH HUTCHINS (DIR. OF OPER. & TECHNOLOGY): $218,847 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Bioone sees sustainable scholarly communications as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, societies, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. Continuation of organization's mission from page 2. Bioone explores economic models and strategic partnerships that balance the needs of all stakeholders, and currently demonstrates this balance by offering financially sustainable information services in the biological sciences. Bioone supports best practices that increase operational effectiveness and technological standards that integrate its content with a global network of scholary exchange.

What it reported doing in 2025

Bioone complete archive: the bioone complete archive is a derivative product of bioone complete, comprised of participating titles' full-text journal content which is more than five (5) years old. The bioone complete archive is sold as a one-time package purchase to individual educational and research institutions, sometimes through library consortia and sales intermediaries. In 2025, the bioone complete archive contained 175 titles from 127 not-for-profit publishers. The majority of sales revenue for the bioone complete archive is returned to participating publishers through bioone's revenue sharing model.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 96% 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. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 65
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 96
  • Sustainability: 45
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.1%; rating input score 69
  • Program expense ratio: 80.7%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • 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: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 22nd 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: 11%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.25; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.49; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.1%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -0.4% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 1.1% per year; rating input score 100; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 2.9% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.1% of revenue deployed · 80.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 13 of 14 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $9.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $413K · 19 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $869K reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2015 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 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.

  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.