Next Step Network Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 611656588
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Louisville, KY, USA
- Phone
- 5026941979
- Rating
- 69
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Housing Development, Construction, Management
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,147,273
- Expenses
- $1,090,134
- Assets
- $1,865,687
- Liabilities
- $245,604
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- STACEY EPPERSON (PRESIDENT &)
Highest reported compensation
- STACEY EPPERSON (PRESIDENT &): $219,013 total reported compensation
- BILLIE WELLS (FINANCE DIRE): $99,115 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Putting sustainable homeownership within reach of everyone, while transforming the manufactured housing industry through consumer education, affordability and energy-efficiency.
What it reported doing in 2024
Next step's mission is to put sustainable homeownership within everyone's reach while transforming the manufactured housing industry through consumer education, energy efficiency, and affordability. Our social enterprise model comprises a parent nonprofit (next step network), dedicated to education, training, and advocacy, and a subsidiary (next step homes) that facilitates the purchase and sale of homes from manufacturers and earns revenue from manufacturers, developers, etc. Next step is a collaboration between social enterprise and private business that creates more value for the homebuyer than one actor alone. For more than a decade, next step has trained nonprofit organizations and mission-driven entities on the manufactured housing done right model, which allows them to reduce their construction costs, increase their production efficiencies, and increase their homes' long-term appreciation. They also support low-income homebuyers with education and access to quality mortgage loans. The next step homes' brand promises the industry's highest quality and energy-efficiency standard available today. We solve these three problems for our homebuyers: 1) increase access to a lower-cost home for homeowners locked out of the market, 2) lower the overall operating cost of homeownership through energy star+ efficiencies, 3) increase equity and resale value, providing a tool to break intergenerational cycles of poverty. In 2021, next step completed participation in the dela programme, a global accelerator to offer a space for scaling socially driven initiatives co- created by ashoka and ikea social entrepreneurship. The systems change principles taught as a part of this engagement informed our new five-year strategic plan to scale our impact in communities nationwide. Additionally, next step joined the underserved mortgage markets coalition - a coalition of housing advocacy organizations dedicated to better serving traditionally underserved housing markets, including manufactured housing.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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 most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 56
- Accountability: 91
- Sustainability: 46
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 82.1%; rating input score 82
- Program expense ratio: 86.4%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.3 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 24th 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: 5%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.71; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.13; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 29.2%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -2.1% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -0.9% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 82.1% of revenue deployed · 86.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 13 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $942K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $219K · 14 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2016 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 23/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
- 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.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 38/100.