Gear Alliance Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 474256501
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2014
- Location
- Longmont, CO, USA
- Phone
- 7208396587
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $264,511
- Expenses
- $257,016
- Assets
- $231,068
- Liabilities
- $10,190
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Terry Olkin (Board President)
- John Rigsby (Board Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Dawn Hudson (Junior Team Representative)
- Kurt Svendsen (Board Member)
- Tom Wilke (FTC team Representative)
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
Our mission is to provide an inclusive environment for teaching and inspiring students through mentor-based science & technology programs that engage students technically through learning curricula and real-world engineering challenges, and socially through teamwork, community service and leadership. The GEAR Alliance is an umbrella organization for a number of FIRST robotics teams in the Longmont, Colorado area. We also run summer camps, after-school activities and run STEM related communities service activities.
What it reported doing in 2024
Accomplishment: Operation of competitive robotics teams for school age children competing in FIRST robotics competitions. The GEAR Alliance supports on high school level team (FRC) (~80 students), one middle/high school level team (FTC) (~15 students) and six elementary level (FLL)teams (~ 40 students). Revenue from dues, collected travel fees, gear sales and team meal fee collections.
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.
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: 89
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 46
- Sustainability: 45
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.8%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 90.3%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: $264.43 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 93; 93rd 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: 28.6%; rating input score 29; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: 2.8%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.9; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 18.4% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 21.8% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 19.8% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 87.8% of revenue deployed · 90.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 2 of 7 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $232K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 39 of 40 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 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 29/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 46/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.