Grow the Game Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 883042629
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2025
- Location
- Cherry Hill, NJ, USA
- Phone
- 8566301377
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Management & Technical Assistance
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $8,829
- Expenses
- $31,033
- Assets
- $13,553
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jacob Cerota (President)
- Ashton Hopp (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Jacob Cerota (President)
- Ashton Hopp (Vice President)
- Megan Black (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
Grow the Game Inc. supports college basketball student managers through career development, education, mentorship, and professional placement opportunities within the basketball industry.
What it reported doing in 2025
Grow the Game Inc. delivered career development programming for college basketball student managers, including virtual cohorts focused on basketball operations, video/analytics, and creative services. The organization also operated a Graduate Assistant (GA) Pathway Program to support graduating seniors in securing entry-level roles in college basketball and hosted events to provide networking and professional exposure opportunities. Over 50 participants landed their first job.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 69% of its reported program spending out as grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filed totals do not add up and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 100
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 25
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 99.7%; rating input score 100
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -251.5%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.44; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 99.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $31K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 8 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- 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.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part I part ii net assets crosscheck did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.