First Step Staffing
Legal name: First Step Staffing Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 208038859
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Atlanta, GA, US
- Phone
- 833-539-3059
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Job Training
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $53,343,075
- Expenses
- $56,444,943
- Assets
- $21,468,967
- Liabilities
- $24,534,452
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
25 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Amelia Nickerson (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Amelia Nickerson (CEO): $393,173 total reported compensation
- Matt Miller (COO): $375,002 total reported compensation
- Trevor Turner (VP of Northeast): $196,668 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
First Step Staffing provides light-industrial staffing solutions while helping people facing barriers to employment find and keep jobs.
What it reported doing in 2025
First Step Staffing, an Alternative Staffing Organization, is designed to eliminate barriers to employment. First Step believes in providing an economic opportunity for everyone. To do so, First Step contracts with businesses and directly employs men and women who have experienced homelessness, veterans, and returning citizens to fill these contract jobs. To help our clients successfully re-enter the job market and support job retention, First Step provides training, job coaching, transportation assistance to/from work, and any necessary uniforms, tools, or equipment. First Step has had a powerful impact on individuals' lives and in the community. Since being founded in Atlanta in 2007, First Step Staffing has helped thousands of individuals re-enter the workforce in its eight current locations (Atlanta, Augusta, Nashville, Orlando, Philadelphia, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Fontana) and paid millions in earned wages.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 93% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 85
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 11
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 95.4%; rating input score 95
- Fundraising efficiency: $3.61 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- 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: -5.8%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.38; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.14; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.1%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.7% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.4% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.8% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 8 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 95.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $53.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $393K · 25 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $139K reported
- Consistency: 38 of 39 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 10/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 6/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 11/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 1/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.