The Recyclery Collective

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
680632796
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
7732625900
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Recycling Programs

Reported finances

Revenue
$227,204
Expenses
$187,028
Assets
$161,596
Liabilities
$4,615

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Martin Reinke (President | Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Tzippora Rhodes (Director / Programming Coordinator): $20,403 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The Recyclery Collective is an educational bike shop that promotes sustainability by giving access to tools, skills, and opportunities for collaboration. The focus is on refurbishing bicycles to keep them out of the landfill, and empowering youth and adults to learn basic and in-depth bike repair, sharing valuable mechanics skills and resources. Programs include Freecyclery, through which clients referred by social service agencies are matched with refurbished bikes for reliable and independent transportation; Earn-A-Bike, where individuals can earn a donated bike by providing hours of service in supervised bike repair; Open Shop, a do-it-yourself bike repair clinic, and Youth Open Shop for youth 11-18. We also collaborate with local schools to run extensive youth cycling and mechanics programs. Through this programming, we continue to deepen our engagement with our neighbors and the people we serve.

What it reported doing in 2024

Our Open Shop program is a do-it-yourself bike repair clinic that offers community members tools and resources to fix and maintain their bicycles. Volunteer mechanics are on-site to provide guidance and support. Through skill-sharing, we promote sustainability and empowerment while offering an affordable and accessible way to keep bikes safe and useful. A weekly Open Shop session geared towards the Femme, Trans, Women, and Non-Binary (FTWN-B) community provides a collaborative environment for a demographic often excluded from mechanics in our society.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 72% of the money available for current operations came from other operating 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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 64
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 52
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 63.6%; rating input score 64
  • Program expense ratio: 77.2%; rating input score 77
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 25; 25th 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: 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: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 17.7%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.86; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.9%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 12.3% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 63.6% of revenue deployed · 77.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $144K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $20K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 42 of 42 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 25/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.