Southern Word Inc
Overview
Mission
Offer creative solutions to build youth literacy
What it reported doing in 2024
1237 students served as part of after-school and community workshops; 7265 people thorugh community performances
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 64% 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.
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 263547391
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Headquarters
- Nashville, TN, USA
- Phone
- 6156865456
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filed totals do not add up.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 81%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 78.1%; rating input score 78
- Fundraising efficiency: $32.67 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 12th 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: 7 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3.5%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.37; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 11.7% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 81% of revenue deployed · 78.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 7 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $532K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 18 of 19 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 13 annual filings from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: FY2024.