College Is Real Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 208651702
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2011
- Location
- Danville, CA, USA
- Phone
- 9256836662
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Student Services, Organizations of Students
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,499,907
- Expenses
- $1,378,772
- Assets
- $1,248,448
- Liabilities
- $33,343
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Bradley Blake (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Angelica Arriaga (Executive Dir.): $132,750 total reported compensation
- David Millstein (COO): $80,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our mission is to change the college-going culture in Richmonds high schools in order to uplift the community by having more of its students, who are mostly low-income people of color, attend and be the first in their families to graduate from college.
What it reported doing in 2024
In 2024-2025, College Is Real, Inc. (CIR) served over 450 high school students at Richmond's three public high schools (Richmond, De Anza and Kennedy) in Richmond, CA. Students are admitted to the CIR program after submitting an application, having an interview with the program director and meeting certain academic criteria. CIR's objective is to have a 100% high school graduation rate and 90-100% of its members accepted to four-year colleges. CIR provides academic counseling, after-school tutoring and study hall throughout the school year. CIR pays for SAT and ACT testing registration and college applications for those students who don't otherwise have sufficient personal or government funding. CIR provides college tours for its students as well as site visits to local companies. CIR also organizes and sponsors various community service activities for its members in order to give them the opportunity to "Give Back" to the community while helping strengthen their college applications. CIR awards scholarships to its graduating seniors depending upon which university or college they are attending. The scholarships typically average $2,000 per student and are awarded at the annual awards night. CIR also provides merit scholarships to its alumni attending college. There is also a College Success Program that helps ensure an effective transition for the students into freshman year and to persevere through to college graduation.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 76% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 47% for direct work, and 53% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 85
- Sustainability: 48
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79%; rating input score 79
- Program expense ratio: 85.6%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $24.18 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 24th 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: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 8.1%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.91; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 15.4%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 13.5% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 14.4% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13.9% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79% of revenue deployed · 85.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 13 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $133K · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 59/100.