Philadelphia College Opportunity Resources for Education

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
230355320
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Phone
2677649880
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Scholarships, Student Financial Aid Services, Awards

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$237,942
Expenses
$266,430
Assets
$6,191,074
Liabilities
$260,351

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MICHAEL TUCKER (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • MICHAEL TUCKER (PRESIDENT)
  • DONYALE REAVIS (DIRECTOR)
  • NAOMI NELSON (EXECUTIVE DI)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Philadelphia college opportunity resources for education ("core") is a nonprofit corporation founded in philadelphia, pa in 2003. Core was organized to provide financial scholarships and college prep assistance to high school students. Core scholarships are only applicable to students who reside in philadelphia. Core is a nonprofit initiative designed to unite communities around the goal of ensuring that all children have access to college. Core's premier program, the rise financial literacy scholarship program, is a first-of-its-kind program that offers all high school seniors - whether from public, private charter or parochial systems - in philadelphia a unique opportunity to attend accredited colleges and universities across the country. Core issues awards based on the amount of dollars available for scholarships. Core is primarily supported by a charitable trust and grants from federal entities.

What it reported doing in 2025

Core provide college scholarship awards to philadelphia high school students who are enrolled full time as a graduating high school senior, and students attending a philadelphia 2 or 4-year college, university, or trade school; also provided a steady flow of college prep resource information and important financial aid/college application deadline announcements targeted to graduating high school seniors and college students. The rise financial scholarship program is open to all philadelphia resident public, private, charter, or parochial school students. The scholarship receipients are awarded the rise financial literacy scholarship's amount after their rise application is complete and approved by core. Verification/confirmation of full time attendance at an educational institution is provided by the education instituion's financial aid office. The award check is sent directly to the education institution on the student's behalf. The education institution then applies the scholarship to the student's account balance. No scholarship award checks are given to students directly. All checks go directly to the institutions themselves.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 100% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 65% for direct work, and 35% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 93
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 48
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 93.7%; rating input score 94
  • Program expense ratio: 83.7%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -12%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 23.24; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.1% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -3.5% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 93.7% of revenue deployed · 83.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $223K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2013 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

Key Signals

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

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 17/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 29/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.