College Unbound
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 462470807
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2014
- Location
- Providence, RI, US
- Phone
- 401-537-7164
- Rating
- 69
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $10,194,743
- Expenses
- $8,080,758
- Assets
- $4,806,855
- Liabilities
- $780,544
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
31 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Adam Bush (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Sylvia Spears (Provost & VP of Lifelong Learn): $181,146 total reported compensation
- Adam Bush (President): $169,413 total reported compensation
- Julia Rickert (Chief Development Officer): $169,382 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
College Unbound makes higher education possible for adult learners—working professionals, parents, and community leaders—by integrating learning into your life, work, and passions.
What it reported doing in 2024
College unbound integrates the students' own purposes for learning with the needs of their workplaces and communities, improving the lives of the students and the lives of those they touch.
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 80% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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 few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 55
- Transparency & Controls: 71
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 53
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 50.6%; rating input score 51
- Program expense ratio: 63.7%; rating input score 64
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.09 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 20.7%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.59; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.16; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 14.8%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 26.1% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 26.4% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 19% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 50.6% of revenue deployed · 63.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 21 of 24 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $181K · 31 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 10 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 51/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 48/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Conflict-of-interest policy not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.