Young STEAMers

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
920611373
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
Fremont, CA, USA
Phone
5105160035
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$222,762
Expenses
$94,679
Assets
$186,630
Liabilities
$1,263

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Orna Kretchmer PhD (CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • Orna Kretchmer PhD (CEO): $3,846 total reported compensation
  • Christina Melnarik PhD (COO): $3,846 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Young steamers provides hands-on steam education, career exploration, and mentorship to underserved youth, closing opportunity gaps and creating pathways to educational and economic success.

What it reported doing in 2025

Young steamers offers free, year-round programs that spark interest in steam and open pathways to stem careers for low-income children & youth. 1) steam classes engage k8 students in hands-on core sciences, engineering, physics, & tech enrichment. Instructors and aides are also role models that inspire and empower. 2)at family events, parents gain tools to support their childrens education and career exploration. 3)career compass events introduce youth to real-world stem careers and connect students with professionals through monthly virtual panels. 4) our employment model builds a community-driven pipeline of college instructors & high school aides who gain experience, skills, & network. In 2025, we taught 2,694 students, delivered 440 lessons at 26 sites, & trained 22 instructors.

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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. 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: 55
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 68
  • Sustainability: 69
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 33.8%; rating input score 34
  • Program expense ratio: 80.2%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $81.64 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 82; 82nd 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: 60%; rating input score 60; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: 57.5%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.97; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.1%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 63.9% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 64.4% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 33.8% of revenue deployed · 80.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $76K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $4K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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 34/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 59/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 42/100.