MERS Goodwill Industries
Legal name: Mersmissouri Goodwill Industries
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 430652657
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- St Louis, MO, USA
- Phone
- 3142413464
- Rating
- 91
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $251,650,956
- Expenses
- $240,848,744
- Assets
- $177,298,307
- Liabilities
- $50,903,128
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
35 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MARK R ARENS (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
Highest reported compensation
- MARK R ARENS (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $591,461 total reported compensation
- C DAWAYNE BARNETT (CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $419,171 total reported compensation
- MARK O KAHRS (EXECUTIVE VP): $322,637 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Changing lives through the power of work. MERS Goodwill works with many agencies in the community to provide vouchers to use at the retail stores on a referral basis. Unfortunately, MERS Goodwill does not give or sell their donated cars to the public. Our donated cars are sold “as is” at dealer auto auctions in St. Louis, Rolla and Springfield, Missouri. The revenue from the sale of our donated cars is used to further our mission of helping individuals with employment training and job placement services throughout the bi-state area. Does MERS Goodwill help with things other than employment? Other services provided through MERS Goodwill include the Supported Living Program (funded by St. Louis Office for DD Resources in St. Louis Cit.
What it reported doing in 2024
Employment and training: mers/Missouri goodwill industries provides a variety of rehabilitation employment and training services for clients of various state agencies. Services include testing, evaluation, training, and placement. A sample of available programs includes:* autism employment program* brain injury employment program* career counseling & vocational education* deaf & hard of hearing* developmental & intellectual disabilities* education & literacymers/Missouri goodwill industries established goodwill excel centers in 2018. The goodwill excel centers provide adults over the age of 21 an opportunity to obtain a free high school education as well as job training for after graduation.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The program-spending lines do not add up, so the filing cannot show reliably whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
- 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 89
- Transparency & Controls: 95
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 49
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 89.6%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 93.1%; rating input score 93
- Fundraising efficiency: $54.8 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 4.3%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.74; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.29; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1%; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.9% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 89.6% of revenue deployed · 93.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 20 of 20 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $224.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $591K · 35 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $5.2M reported
- Consistency: 35 of 36 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 53/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 57/100.