Project SYNCERE
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 262554942
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2008
- Location
- Chicago, IL, US
- Phone
- 773-982-8261
- Rating
- 67
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,787,299
- Expenses
- $1,955,420
- Assets
- $157,230
- Liabilities
- $46,659
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JASON L COLEMAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- CANDICE SMITH (BOARD PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- JASON L COLEMAN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $139,505 total reported compensation
- ADRIANNE WHEELER-BALL (PROGRAM DIRECTOR): $97,335 total reported compensation
- CRAIG MORRIS (DIR OF DEVELOPMENT): $81,540 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of Project SYNCERE (Supporting Youth's Needs with Core Engineering Research Experiments) is to prepare the minds of underrepresented students and create pathways for them to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
What it reported doing in 2024
Project syncere successfully served over 2,000 students with hands on stem activities in the fiscal year and hosted a city-wide engineering competition.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 66% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 32
- Sustainability: 15
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 78.3%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 71.6%; rating input score 72
- Fundraising efficiency: $15.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: Limited
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -9.4%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.08; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.3; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 16.3%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 11.3% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 78.3% of revenue deployed · 71.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $140K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 27 of 28 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2013 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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.
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 4/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 20/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.