Growingstems Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
460573936
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2023
Location
Hollywood, MD, USA
Phone
4435167836
Rating
67
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Biomedicine, Bioengineering Research

Reported finances

Revenue
$214,510
Expenses
$135,795
Assets
$423,257
Liabilities
$1,186

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Zachary Stachelczyk (Vice Chairman / Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • Erik Wood (Chairman)
  • Zachary Stachelczyk (Vice Chairman / Executive Director)
  • Andrew Koch (Secretary / Treasurer)

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

At growingSTEMS, our mission is to ignite a lifelong passion for learning and innovation by providing accessible and engaging robotics education to children of all ages. We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to explore, create, and excel in the world of robotics, and we are committed to empowering them with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in an increasingly technology-driven world.

What it reported doing in 2024

FIRST Robotics - Mentors guide students through team-based problem-solving projects and compete via FIRST organization, which has 1000s of teams worldwide. Students also attend community events such as the St. Mary's College of Maryland River Concert Series (~5000 visitors) St. Mary's County Public School STEM events (~1000 visitors) and the US National Oyster Festival (~16000 visitors), where they provide free hands-on activities such as building paper rockets, driving robots, and simple chemistry experiments. This category includes the FIRST FRC team.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 73% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 37
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 75
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 35.1%; rating input score 35
  • Program expense ratio: 52.8%; rating input score 53
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 36.7%; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.12; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 20.3% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 14.7% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 33.4% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 35.1% of revenue deployed · 52.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $72K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 41 of 42 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2022 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 35/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 53/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.