Community Resources for Science

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
943262587
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Berkeley, CA, USA
Phone
5105275212
Rating
85
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Education N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,159,619
Expenses
$1,143,729
Assets
$602,394
Liabilities
$91,674

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

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Anne Baranger (President)
  • Sonya Heisters (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Teresa Barnett (Executive Dir.): $116,993 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

CRS empowers teachers and STEM professionals serving schools in historically marginalized communities to activate TK-8 students curiosity about the world, foster critical thinking, and inspire children to imagine future career pathways. CRS leads a dynamic network, fostering relationships and collaborations that leverage expertise and resources to transform science teaching and learning toward greater equity, opportunity, and success for all students.

What it reported doing in 2025

Bay Area Scientists Inspiring Students (BASIS) and Be a Scientist STEM Mentoring programs engage STEM professionals as volunteers in K-8 schools. Programs recruit, train, coach and place scientists, engineers, and other STEM professionals from academia and industry to serve as role models and mentors while leading students and teachers in authentic STEM learning experiences. Programs introduce K-8 students to STEM careers and pathways, illustrate connections between daily lived experiences and potential careers. In 2025, our STEM outreach programs engaged 1,500+ STEM professionals and directly reached 20,000 young learners. Lesson plans, materials, resource information, science content, and teaching strategies are shared with classroom K-8 teachers to build teacher capacity and empower educators to build on the BASIS and Be a Scientist lessons to extend learning. Students engage in authentic science and engineering practices, meeting California standards in science, math, language arts, and Environmental Principals and Concepts. BASIS lesson plans and related resources are available for teachers on the CRS website. Be a Scientist mentors guide middle school students through the process of designing, conducting, and communicating findings on independent, student-selected science and engineering investigations, activating student agency in STEM learning based on individual student interests.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 76% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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

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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 32
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 89.1%; rating input score 89
  • Program expense ratio: 90.3%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: $19.11 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 54; 54th 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: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 1.4%; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.53; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.2%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 20.6% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 89.1% of revenue deployed · 90.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $117K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 54/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 35/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.