Phoenix Employment Services of Wilmingto Inc DBA StepUp Wilmington

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
542074778
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2011
Location
Wilmington, NC, USA
Phone
9103438469
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Vocational Counseling

Reported finances

Revenue
$938,806
Expenses
$1,283,059
Assets
$537,143
Liabilities
$261,235

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

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Riley Stephenson (President)
  • Sandy Spiers (Vice President)
  • Teresa Wolf (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Teresa Wolf (Executive Director): $105,867 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Phoenix Employment Services, Inc. (dba StepUp Wilmington) seeks to empower individuals to reach their potential and lead stable lives through satisfying work. StepUp Wilmington's vision is to create a community of prosperity and hope.

What it reported doing in 2024

In fiscal year 2024/25, StepUp Wilmington served more than 400 individuals and places 263 jobs. StepUp's operations returned to fully in-person training for its Job and Step2 programs, the latter of which was rebranded to CareerUp during the fiscal year, focusing more on developing careers for StepUp candidates. In FY 2024/25, StepUp continued to build and grow Beyond Talent, its social enterprise staffing initiative acting as the primary job placement division for StepUp's "job ready" candidates. Beyond Talent maintains 30 contracts in the Cape Fear region and placed 24 candidates into jobs with an average wage of over $15/hour. In addition, the placements generated an employer-paid fee for the organization. Beyond Talent leverages the organization's existing base of business partners and strong workforce services to provide opportunities for its program participants in the broader jobs market. FY 2024/25 was the second year of operations for its Restorative Opportunity Internships (ROI) program. This initiative focuses on internships for teens.

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 95% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 89
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 15
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 95.4%; rating input score 95
  • Program expense ratio: 69.8%; rating input score 70
  • Fundraising efficiency: $2.97 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: -36.7%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.42; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.49; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.3%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 12.8% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 12.2% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 95.4% of revenue deployed · 69.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $895K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $106K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 5/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 16/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.