Elevate Birmingham

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
861888140
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Birmingham, AL, USA
Phone
2052185743
Rating
66
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$325,468
Expenses
$151,188
Assets
$231,890
Liabilities
$51,682

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

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DANNY BRISTER JR (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • DANNY BRISTER JR (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $34,625 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Building long-term, life-changing relationships with youth, equipping them to thrive and contribute to their community.

What it reported doing in 2024

Teaching accredited classes: the elevate birmingham mentors are called teacher-mentors because they teach accredited classes in public high schools. The teacher-mentors teach each class in teams, meaning that there are typically three teacher-mentors in every class. These multiple mentors allow for role models with different genders, ethnicities, backgrounds, and personalities. Elevate classes are holistic in nature, providing instruction and practice in the following areas: character development, life skills, social-emotional skill development, leadership and community engagement, healthy relationship development, financial understanding and management, restorative justice practices, entrepreneurship, work readiness exploration and skill development and post-high school planning. Elevate has a developmentally appropriate curriculum for 4th through 12th grades. Every lesson is aligned with common core standards and social-emotional competencies. These classes incorporate thirteen vital character and life skills designed to develop the personal character, leadership abilities and capabilities needed for success. Through this intensive hands-on, experiential curriculum, teacher-tentors are with mentees every school day and build strong relationships with them. Each team of teacher-mentors teaches two to three classes per day, or approximately 50% of their day. The other 50% of their time is spent in the second elevate program area - mentoring outside of school.

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 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.
  • 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 49
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 80
  • Sustainability: 63
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 33.8%; rating input score 34
  • Program expense ratio: 72.8%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $16.28 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 19th 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: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 25th 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: Fail
    • 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: 53.5%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.53; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 22.9%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -25.9% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -14.1% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 40% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 33.8% of revenue deployed · 72.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 12 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $110K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $35K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
  • 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 34/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 52/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 52/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 16/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.