Ohio Progressive Collaborative Education Fund
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 825116453
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2018–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Columbus, OH, USA
- Phone
- 6142140756
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,446,288
- Expenses
- $2,290,911
- Assets
- $2,737,713
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Misha Barnes (Director): $211,529 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To convene a high capacity group of individual and institutional donors that leverages resources to achieve policy goals advancing the progressive movement in Ohio, and to promote education through distributions to exempt educational organizations and projects.
What it reported doing in 2025
The organization fulfilled its exempt educational purposes through grants to Ohio-based nonprofit organizations engaged in civic education, public policy research, and community engagement. Funded activities addressed issues of public concern, including but not limited to, public education, affordability, access to justice, and civic participation. Grantmaking decisions were made by the board of directors under established criteria emphasizing educational impact and public benefit.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 66% for direct work, and 34% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 61
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 65
- Sustainability: 50
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 60.8%; rating input score 61
- Program expense ratio: 65%; rating input score 65
- Fundraising efficiency: $15.61 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Missing
- 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 6.4%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.2; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.5%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 24.9% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 25.2% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 28.7% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 60.8% of revenue deployed · 65% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 2 of 3 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $212K · 3 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $454K reported
- Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 6 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.
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 47/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 40/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 38/100.