STARTedUP Foundation
Legal name: Startedup Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 825058263
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2018
- Location
- Noblesville, IN, USA
- Phone
- 3177779240
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,421,425
- Expenses
- $1,892,988
- Assets
- $1,190,726
- Liabilities
- $250,666
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- DONALD WETTRICK (CEO)
- HUNTER STONE (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- DONALD WETTRICK (CEO): $119,671 total reported compensation
- HUNTER STONE (PRESIDENT): $119,229 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To empower Indiana students and educators to develop an entrepreneurial mindset through real-world innovation experiences, including the STARTedUP Challenge and Innovation Accelerator.
What it reported doing in 2024
The startedup innovation educator fellowship is a year-long professional development program that equips high school educators to become innovation leaders in their classrooms and communities. Through in-person workshops, ongoing coaching, and project-based learning, teachers gain tools to embed entrepreneurship, real-world problem-solving, and community engagement into their classwork. The program empowers educators to connect students with local industries and opportunities, building purpose-driven learning environments and strengthening local talent pipelines.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 72% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 86% 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
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 52
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 51
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 51.9%; rating input score 52
- Program expense ratio: 66.5%; rating input score 66
- Fundraising efficiency: $2.3 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 96.5%; rating input score 96; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 21.8%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.63; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 12.6%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 35.7% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 35.9% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 42.8% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 51.9% of revenue deployed · 66.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $120K · 9 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $138K reported
- Consistency: 31 of 32 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2019 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 52/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 6/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 23/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.