The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
141923044
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Durham, NC, USA
Phone
9192949881
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Development Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,026,068
Expenses
$923,233
Assets
$3,843,588
Liabilities
$176,667

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Todd Guentensberger (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Todd Guentensberger (Executive Director): $137,474 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

CIBL exists to nurture the natural excitement children have doing science. Its mission is to support NC K-8 teachers by providing training and by providing the most engaging, integrated, hands-on STEM curriculum materials that promote creativity, collaboration and communication.

What it reported doing in 2024

Classroom Kit Provision CIBL provides STEM curriculum units filled with hands-on materials that promote creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. We have several different products that include 1 SCIENCE KITS - Each unit serves one teacher and up to 32 students K-5 or 125 students 6-8 for a 9-week instruction period. At the end of each instruction period, the kit is returned to CIBL for refurbishing and reuse, eliminating storage and replenishment issues for teachers. 2 STUDENT ACTIVITY PACKSSAP - These are individual student bags with STEM design challenges. Each pack serves 1 teacher/35 students. During the 2024-25 school year, CIBL provided 1,143 kits and 2,750 SAPs, serving approximately 200,000 students. 3 CUSTOM PRODUCTS AS NEEDED - CIBL supports the NC Science Festival by packing the Science Night kits. These kits are supplied to teachers throughout the state through the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center located on UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Last year CIBL provided 323 of these kits which served approximately 65,000 students.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 74% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 62
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 86%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: $1.65 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 5; 5th 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 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: 10%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.16; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 14.9%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 1.4% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 86% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $794K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $137K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 5/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.