Street Youth Ministry of Austin

What it reported doing in 2025

Client Services: The Strategy of Early Intervention: SYMin serves street-dependent youth by meeting them where they are for physical relief, engaging them in core services to build trusted relationships, and helping them achieve life-change goals. Intervening during these formative years is critical; for youth, homelessness is often a temporary crisis that can be prevented from becoming a lifelong identity through immediate, targeted support. This work is intentionally challenging; we seek out a client base that has been deeply disappointed by life, requiring our team to provide persistent, steady support through the difficult ups and downs of recovery. Unprecedented Growth and Resilience: In 2025, SYMin served a record 2,299 unique clients, a 10% increase over 2024. Despite this 10% growth in service volume and a challenging inflationary environment, we successfully contained program cost growth to approximately 5% through staff creativity and rigorous operational discipline. Of our total clients, 488 were young adults in our primary target age range. While we focus on youth, meeting overage clients on outreach remains essential to discovering hidden young people; as these older individuals see the dignity and trust with which we treat everyone on the street, they help bridge the gap to the younger population. This growth occurred despite a major Memorial Day flood that damaged our main facility, requiring a rapid relocation of services. The teams resilience ensured no gap in care during this crisis. Expanding the Reach and Impact: Our San Marcos outreach experienced explosive growth, serving 351 unique clients (up 59%) with a 161% increase in contact hours. In Austin, outreach teams distributed 1,576 food bags and reached 1,756 individuals. Direct relief efforts surged, providing 171 laundry passes (up 138%) and 177 showers (up 65%), alongside new initiatives for eyeglasses and work shoes. We see a powerful correlation between these hygiene services, our job coaching, and the ability of our clients to secure employment. Our data proves that deep engagement works: clients with 40 or more hours of staff interaction were 3.2 times more likely to achieve life changes, with 98% of heavily engaged clients reaching at least one major milestone. In total, 1,066 client goals were achieved, including significant gains in housing (up 46%) and sobriety (up 40%).

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 95%; rating input score 95
• Program expense ratio: 94.6%; rating input score 95
• Fundraising efficiency: $52.55 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 76; 76th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th 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; 64th 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: -0.3%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.97; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 15.9%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 13.5% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 9.8% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 13.1% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings