Make Startups Institute Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 462793987
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2016
- Location
- Augusta, GA, USA
- Phone
- 7068778707
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Science and Technology N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $345,276
- Expenses
- $359,367
- Assets
- $28,308
- Liabilities
- $8,829
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
People named in this filing
- GRACE BELANGIA (DIRECTOR)
- SCOTT MANNING (TREASURER)
- DAN MINAHAN (BOARD MEMBER)
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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The vision of our hackerspace is a self sustaining creative technology cooperative workshop that provides people with the space, equipment, instruction, guidance, and friendships necessary to tackle any challenge they may face. We believe that the sole purpose of technology is to better human lives, and that through mastery of it, our members can enjoy higher quality of life while also being individually more productive. Our goal is to better the economic circumstances of our community through venture creation based upon humanistic ideals and long term sustainability.
What it reported doing in 2025
Support entrepreneurship & start up businesses with multi week crash courses for indepth learning, technical training, an inclusive environment for peers to share and nurture ideas into actionable business ventures and promote innovation. Members have access to hot desks up to private offices, lab space & specialized equipment and peers with different expertise all within the ga cyber center complex for them to develop ideas into viable business's while being guided by the clubhou.se's staff & directors.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Membership-supported. 73% of the money available for current operations came from membership dues.
- 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. 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: 90
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 24
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80.5%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 77.3%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.94 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- 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: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -4.1%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.08; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.31; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 0.3% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 9% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -6.4% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 80.5% of revenue deployed · 77.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $278K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 48/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 6/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 13/100.