Suburban Balance

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025, 55 High school Seniors are graduating out of Suburban Balance(adding to the total of a little over 500 students since the founding in 2012) and heading off to college or into a certification program or workforce development training program. Suburban helped connect students to paid internships in the careers they are pursuing. Suburban Balance successfully built a relationship with major school district in Kansas which resulted in the non-profit launching the C.A.R. E. program(college and career access readiness education) to help build the essential competencies of students to help them navigate applying for college and we have helped connect them to job training and workforce development program called CARE which offers mentors to help support college students through college completion. The organization continued our efforts to recruit CARE coaches and now have 20 C.A.R.E. coaches part of the program. CARE stands for college and career access readiness education. An initiative to help change the trajectory of declining college enrollment rates and declining college graduation rates amongst black students. This is a huge accomplishment. The program is reaching over 200 students. 99% of students are heading to college or into a workforce development program. Suburban Balance is also building the mindset, behaviors and skillset to teach students about entrepreneurship and starting their own business someday. Exposing them to financial literacy, our motto is the earlier the better. Suburban Balance announced a new initiative to launch our new Entrepreneurship Economic Mobility support workshops to advance equitable economic mobility in KC. The initiative aims to help underrepresented minority women entrepreneurs start, sustain, grow and scale their businesses through these robust workshops. The number of families getting their children involved in Suburban Balance grew significantly in 2025. Nearly 100 families enrolled their children in our programming. These families receive access to a variety of educational programs, information regarding scholarships, mentoring resources, and the support of advocates who advocate for educational equity on behalf of families. The organization continues to work to remove inequities that create educational and health disparities as Education is a social determinant of health. In 2025 Suburban Balance awarded approx. 15,000 in scholarships to help underrepresented minority students go to college.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 85.9%; rating input score 86
• Program expense ratio: 85.7%; rating input score 86
• Fundraising efficiency: $26.08 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 25th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • 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: -0.2%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.66; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.42; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 36.5%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 96% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 19.5% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 23% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings