Heroes & Cool Kids

Legal name: Brunan Inc Dba Heros and Cool Kids Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
223611789
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2021
Location
Norwood, NJ, US
Phone
201-641-0699
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Counseling, Support Groups

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$266,175
Expenses
$284,016
Assets
$162,834
Liabilities
$73,439

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • BRUCE HARPER (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • SUSAN RUDOLPH (Executive Dir.): $50,000 total reported compensation
  • BRUCE HARPER (President): $42,500 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 help schools create a culture change where strong leadership prevails, mental health is nurtured, and kids feel safe and supported by teaching skills to build courage, confidence, and character, and inspiring students to use those skills to help end drug abuse, bullying, peer pressure, suicide, and other risky behaviors.

What it reported doing in 2024

Heroes & Cool Kids is a school-based mentoring program that was co-founded 17 years ago by the legendary NY Jets running back, Bruce Harper. We have been impacting the lives and childhoods of students ever since. Our locallybased (NJ/NY) program combines experiential learning inspired by professional athletes with leadership development and mentoring. Our program directly impacts young lives by raising awareness about peer pressures, school violence, intolerance, unethical behaviors, as well as reducing the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and delaying the age of experimentation.In 2015, the program involved over 24,000 students, 2,800 student leaders, and 350 teen influencers (coaches, teachers, parents, faith leaders). It was a year in which we placed renewed focus on drug abuse prevention as a result of the growing heroin epidemic among young people in our area.Independent research by Fairleigh Dickinson University found that students in the program - as compared to a control group - showed significant improvement in setting goals and taking responsibility for the achievement of those goals, with 53% of students demonstrating a positive shift. Students also showed significant improvement in taking an unpopular but necessary stand. 40% of students demonstrated increased understanding of this concept, 39% displayed an increase in problem solving ability. As a nonprofit organization, H&CK maintains the highest standards of ethical leadership, fiscal integrity, transparency and cost efficiency. Our administrative cost is 18%.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 92% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 74
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 23
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.9%; rating input score 84
  • Program expense ratio: 78.6%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $1.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 9th 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: 72.7%; rating input score 73; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Limited
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -6.7%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.57; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.45; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 32.6%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -1.1% per year; rating input score 0; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -4.8% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -0.8% per year; rating input score 0; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
  • Where the money goes: 83.9% of revenue deployed · 78.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 11 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $223K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $50K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 17 of 18 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2013 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 9/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 12/100.