National Engineers Week Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
320039097
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2009
Location
Alexandria, VA, USA
Phone
5714670354
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Professional Societies, Associations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,303,356
Expenses
$2,979,219
Assets
$3,344,155
Liabilities
$254,187

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

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • PADMANABHAN SESHAIYER (PRESIDENT)
  • DR MALIKA GRAYSON (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • KATHY RENZETTI (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • THEA SAHR (DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • KATHY RENZETTI (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $221,763 total reported compensation
  • THEA SAHR (DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $181,021 total reported compensation
  • SUSAN HOOPES (DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS): $119,896 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Discovere is a coalition providing every student with a shared stem experience and the resources, programs, and connections to improve the understanding of engineering through a united voice and a global distribution network. Discovere helps stakeholders expand community and educational outreach by: providing resources and turnkey programs for employees and volunteers; supporting strong career connected learning initiatives; promoting positive visibility within the engineering and technology communities, including college students and the public-at-large. Discovere, with its working coalition of 100+ organizations, is known as one of the most effective collaborations today, recognized by corporations and engineering societies and mentioned in two reports by the national academy of engineering.

What it reported doing in 2024

Future city program: the discovere future city competition is a project-based learning program for middle school and high school students. Students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future. More than 80,000 middle and high school students in more than 2,000 schools from 40 regions across the u.s. Join in one of the nation's largest engineering education programs and one of the most successful educational outreach programs of any kind. Notably, approx. 7,500 engineers volunteer for the competition and about 225,000 service hours are given annually to discovere programs. Future city invites students working under the guidance of teachers and volunteer engineers to build computer and three-dimensional scale models of cities of tomorrow. Students defend their designs before a panel of engineer judges and write an essay on a predetermined topic. Students begin their work in the fall and participate in regional competitions in january. First place middle school regional teams win a trip to Washington, d.c. For national finals during national engineers week. Testestest

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 96% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 98% 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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 94
  • Sustainability: 50
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 78.1%; rating input score 78
  • Program expense ratio: 85.7%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: $22.16 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • 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: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 9.8%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.12; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21.4%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.4% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 78.1% of revenue deployed · 85.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $222K · 12 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $795K reported
  • Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 3 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.

  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 41/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.