University of Southern California Science Outreach
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 920368946
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2022–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Rating
- 68
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Professional Societies, Associations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $11,564
- Expenses
- $7,023
- Assets
- $28,582
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Rajyk Bhala (President 2023-2024)
- Jackie Wu (President 2023-2024)
- Natalie Boone 2024-2025 (Co-President)
- Connor Morgan (Co-President 2024-2025)
- Emily Ly (Vice President of Finance)
- Margaux Castillo (Vice President of Operations)
People named in this filing
- Susumu Takahashi (Faculty Advisor)
- Rajyk Bhala (President 2023-2024)
- Jackie Wu (President 2023-2024)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
At the center of SCience Outreach's mission is the desire to provide quality science education at no cost to our local community. We provide experiment materials, equipment, lesson plans, and even clean-up materials to every student. We hope to continue providing these unique lessons to students who otherwise would have no exposure to formal science education until the fourth grade. One of the most important aspects of SCience Outreach is the irreplaceable relationship between the college student volunteers, whom we call SCouts and our junior scientists. Each SCout will work more closely with the same three to four students to demonstrate experiments, answer questions, and be a close mentor to these elementary school students. This close relationship empowers confidence in the junior scientists' learning abilities and a potential interest in STEM in the future. Moreover, our junior scientists trust SCouts to ask questions about science and about their experience within the field.
What it reported doing in 2024
Science Outreach was founded in 2011 and continues to fulfill the goal of providing quality science education at no cost to our partnering schools. We just finished our expansion into first grade in 2020. This allowed us to create unique experiments for all different grade levels this year. Prior to this, first and second grade classes would share experiments. This expansion allowed for a more meaningful experience for our first grade junior scientists and further strengthened our commitment to educating all three grade levels before they are formally introduced to the science curriculum in the fourth grade. In this past fiscal year alone, we have been able to observe the impact SCience Outreach has on our local community. In our partnering schools in the LAUSD, we have taught and formed relationships with over 400 students. In addition, our end of the year science fair had over 500 attendees. We get feedback from both our junior scientists and our Scouts (college student volunteers). The feedback is overwhelmingly positive and both parties are excited to continue their journey with our organization.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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 total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 61
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 79
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 48.7%; rating input score 49
- Program expense ratio: 80.3%; rating input score 80
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 39.3%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.07; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -54.9% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -17% per year; rating input score 0; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.6% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 48.7% of revenue deployed · 80.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $6K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 49/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.