Sand Mountain Cooperative Education Center
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 830732788
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2023–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2022
- Location
- Birmingham, AL, USA
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Education
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $68,287
- Expenses
- $80,573
- Assets
- $27,627
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
People named in this filing
- Bassem ElBendary (Secretary)
- Kieran Kudva Driskell (Member)
- Ari Dubow (Member)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Center shall house and support programs that facilitate freedom, community-centered development, and cooperative education.
What it reported doing in 2024
Cooperative Development. The purpose of the cooperative development program is to grow the SMCEC and accomplish the mission of the organization by growing cooperative education and community-centered development through worker-owned businesses. Program accomplishments include founding and securing long-term funding for the Alabama Center for Employee Ownership, another 501c3 nonprofit, which serves as a central resource hub for employee ownership in Alabama. SMCECs cooperative development team built a national network to support successful employee ownership transitions in Alabama, which includes support from experts and funders. The cooperative development team also performed outreach and education on the social and economic benefits of employee ownership to over 150 people and served 3 Alabama businesses in exploring employee ownership options. In order to accomplish this work, the board contracted a returning Lamplight staff member who now resides in Alabama for the purposes of accomplishing this program.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and revenue has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 91
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 25
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 97.1%; rating input score 97
- Program expense ratio: 82.3%; rating input score 82
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -18%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.34; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.9% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -9.9% per year; rating input score 0; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -36.4% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 97.1% of revenue deployed · 82.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $66K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 23/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.