Mission Bit

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
460945785
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2015, Form 990-N 2013
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone
4158795380
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Culture, and Humanities N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,261,452
Expenses
$1,366,132
Assets
$2,430,541
Liabilities
$152,249

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Christina Ortega (President & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • Christina Ortega (President & CEO): $170,515 total reported compensation
  • Cynthia Chin (COO): $137,707 total reported compensation
  • Cora Monokandilos (Chief Product Ofcr): $132,750 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

We build professional pathways for under-resourced high school youth across the SF Bay Area to unlock their full potential by making computer science more accessible through our free project-based courses.

What it reported doing in 2024

Mission Bit provides computer science courses that expose high school students from underserved and underrepresented communities to multiple coding languages. We design our classrooms with project based, small group, learning in mind. Fall and spring courses run for 13 weeks, 4 hours a week. During the summer, we run intensive introductory and advanced courses that last 6 weeks, respectively. In addition to our classes, we offer students a field trip to a bay area tech company, career and college advising related to the technology field, and an opportunity to showcase their group projects to a large community of supporters during our demo day event at the end of the term.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 83% 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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 54
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 67
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 45%; rating input score 45
  • Program expense ratio: 72.1%; rating input score 72
  • Fundraising efficiency: $13.52 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • 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: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 39.6%; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.78; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 32.3%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 21.6% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 33.3% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 45% of revenue deployed · 72.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $985K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $171K · 13 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 45/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 47/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.