Highview
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 821063569
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023
- Location
- Denver, CO, USA
- Phone
- 9178866943
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development - Business
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $660,590
- Expenses
- $608,495
- Assets
- $313,286
- Liabilities
- $1,510
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- NICOLE SHERMAN (FOUNDER & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- NICOLE SHERMAN (FOUNDER & CEO): $110,365 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Highview is a nonprofit organization that provides year-round career readiness, mentorship, and social capital development programming for academically motivated high school & college students from low-income and first-generation backgrounds in metro denver. Through ongoing partnerships with local employers, highview delivers professional skill-building workshops, one-to-one mentorship, corporate immersion experiences, and scholarship suppot designed to increase college persistence and long-term economic mobility.
What it reported doing in 2025
High school student accelerator/corporate immersion program: through monthly sessions at our partner company offices, highview provides 1:1 mentorship from employee volunteers, career exploration, and professional skill-building to help students build the confidence & social capital needed to persist in college and pursue high-mobility careers. With a 100% on-time high school graduation rate and a 100% career placement rate, highview ensures that highly motivated students turn academic talent into a strong career launch.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 72% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 69
- Sustainability: 42
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.1%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 84.8%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: $10.16 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 35; 35th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- 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: 7.9%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.51; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 18.1%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 19.6% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 33.6% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 78.1% of revenue deployed · 84.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $516K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $110K · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 35/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.