Student Basic Needs Coalition

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
843785072
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2023
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
8653569900
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy Organizations

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,211,368
Expenses
$769,035
Assets
$548,322
Liabilities
$1,246

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Owen Flomberg (Co-Executive Director)
  • Claire Oliveros (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Paige Swanson (Executive Dir.): $115,000 total reported compensation
  • Owen Flomberg (Co-Executive Director): $48,173 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Student Basic Needs Coalition (SBNC) empowers students to lead efforts that address food and housing insecurity on college campuses. Through peer-to-peer support, public education, and innovative technology solutions, SBNC works to ensure that no student has to choose between meeting their basic needs and pursuing their education.

What it reported doing in 2025

Campus Engagement: In 2025, SBNC expanded its campus engagement efforts to support colleges in connecting students to resources that meet their basic needs through a competitive national application process that selected more than 30 colleges and universities to participate in peer navigator training and technical assistance. Student peer navigators conducted outreach activities including tabling, workshops, classroom presentations, and digital campaigns to increase awareness of resources such as SNAP, campus food pantries, emergency aid, and NAVVY while reducing stigma around accessing support. The program benefited college students experiencing food or financial insecurity as well as campus administrators seeking scalable strategies to improve student retention and resource utilization, serving institutions nationwide with an emphasis on community colleges and public institutions. Thousands of students were reached through peer-led outreach activities, and participating campuses strengthened their capacity to sustain basic needs programming, representing an expansion of SBNCs campus engagement services in 2025.

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

SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 60
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 57.9%; rating input score 58
  • Program expense ratio: 91.1%; rating input score 91
  • Fundraising efficiency: $1,379.65 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 98; 98th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 36.5%; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.71; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21.2%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 145% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 130.6% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 135.4% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 57.9% of revenue deployed · 91.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $701K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $115K · 13 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.