StepUp Durham
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 474578727
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Durham, NC, US
- Phone
- (919) 813-0207
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $613,579
- Expenses
- $882,226
- Assets
- $171,793
- Liabilities
- $10,336
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
People named in this filing
- Thomas Wicker (Board member)
- Dominique Grimes-Medlin (Vice ChairChair Personnel Comm)
- Denise Motley (Board 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. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
StepUp Durham offers free employment readiness training, personalized job coaching, employer referrals, and supportive services to job seekers.
What it reported doing in 2024
Gave pre-employment training to approximately 400 adults, helping them obtain employment. Also assisted with transportation, housing assistance, interview clothing and work supplies.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 95% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 20
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 94.8%; rating input score 95
- Program expense ratio: 65.9%; rating input score 66
- Fundraising efficiency: $3.64 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 86
- 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: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -43.8%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.19; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 17.3% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 94.8% of revenue deployed · 65.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 6 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $582K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 15 of 16 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2016 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.
- 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 11/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 9/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 50/100.