Equalize Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 884213191
IRS 990-EZ coverage: 2024–2025
Forms available: Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2023
Location: St Louis, MO, USA
Phone: 5088267644
Rating: 87
Verdict: STRONG
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Adult, Continuing Education

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue: $113,453
Expenses: $115,792
Assets: $39,534
Liabilities: $0

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

Nichole Mercier (President)
Kiersten Leute (Vice President)

People named in this filing

Nichole Mercier (President)
Kiersten Leute (Vice President)
Karen Gheesling Mullis (Secretary)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

Empower women academics to overcome barriers associated with starting new companies from their research labs

What it reported doing in 2025

Equalize Startups is a pitch competition and symposium program that seeks to equalize the pathway for academic women who want to commercialize their innovations. Participants (aka Equalizers) receive regular mentoring sessions with an experienced leader in their field and seminars to help develop business ideas and pitch decks. Equalizers gain new connections and a toolkit of knowledge about selling their ideas in the startup world.

Operating model

Revenue model: Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model: Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 79% for direct work, and 21% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

Financial Efficiency: 82
Transparency & Controls: 100
Sustainability: 36
Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 82.8%; rating input score 83
Program expense ratio: 81.1%; rating input score 81

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

Operating margin: -2.1%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.34; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: 10.5% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: -5.7% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 82.8% of revenue deployed · 81.1% of spending went to programs
Governance: Filed governance answers
Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $94K in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
Schedules: 3 filed schedules
Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
Contacts: How to reach this organization
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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.