FIRST California Robotics

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
810920389
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2020
Location
San Diego, CA, USA
Phone
6199931507
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Development Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$907,156
Expenses
$1,000,704
Assets
$362,408
Liabilities
$362,408

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JOHN ROSE (President)
  • DAVID E BERGGREN (CEO)

People named in this filing

  • JOHN ROSE (President)
  • VELMA LOMAX (Secretary Treasurer)
  • DAVID E BERGGREN (CEO)

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

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

Overview

Mission

To support education, access, growth and operation of programs across grades K-12 in California in areas of science and technology.

What it reported doing in 2024

Raised organization awareness through various digital marketing avenue reaching over 75,000 plus people. Facilitated outreach and demon- stration events to raise awareness and engagement of our programs to approximately 14500 people. This include coordination and logistics that facilitated high school level off-season robot competitions and maintaining and transporting 2 competition fields that supported nine (9) competitions. These competitions engaged 315 high school robotics teams and impacted 7875 students.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 49% for direct work, and 51% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 18
  • Sustainability: 23
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 95.7%; rating input score 96
  • Program expense ratio: 86.8%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.65 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 25; 25th 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: 0%; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: -10.3%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.36; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 41.7% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 34.8% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 37.2% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 95.7% of revenue deployed · 86.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 3 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $470K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 20 of 20 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 6/100.