Breakthrough Birmingham
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 365049424
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2024–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Birmingham, AL, USA
- Phone
- 3054843044
- Rating
- 66
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $539,592
- Expenses
- $257,484
- Assets
- $282,108
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mariohn Michel (Executive director)
Highest reported compensation
- Mariohn Michel (Executive director): $31,132 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Breakthrough Birmingham works with highly motivated, traditionally underrepresented students in Alabama to achieve post-secondary success while empowering aspiring leaders to become the next generation of educators and advocates.
What it reported doing in 2024
Breakthrough Birmingham's Scholars Program provides middle and high school students with free, year-round academic enrichment, leadership development, and exposure opportunities designed to help them thrive in school and beyond. The Summer Program combines rigorous academics, electives, mentorship, and relationship-building in a joyful learning environment, while the School Year Program provides ongoing academic support, advising, college and career exposure, and community-building throughout the year. ExploreU expands scholars' access to new experiences, campuses, careers, and perspectives through hands-on learning opportunities, trips, and exposure-based programming that helps students envision broader possibilities for their futures.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 69% of the money available for current operations came from other operating 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 49
- Transparency & Controls: 81
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 72
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 36.6%; rating input score 37
- Program expense ratio: 76.6%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $5.66 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 52.3%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.1; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 12.1%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 36.6% of revenue deployed · 76.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $197K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $31K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 37/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 21/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 30/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.