Asheville Tool Library
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 830930886
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2018–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- Asheville, NC, US
- Phone
- (828) 808 – 2122
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Community, Neighborhood Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $167,032
- Expenses
- $106,358
- Assets
- $259,124
- Liabilities
- $12,655
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
People named in this filing
- Keenan Phillips (Board Chair)
- Stephanie Kane (Secretary)
- Ken Kelley (Vice Chair)
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
Our mission is to provide low-cost access to a wide range of tools, literature, and knowledge to the citizens of Western North Carolina. We continue to work hard to serve our community and create a thriving example of the sharing economy that we hope will outlive us all. Through the diligent work of our current Board and volunteers, the Asheville Tool Library has become a huge part of making our city more sustainable and resourceful. 2013 - Conceptualization The Asheville Tool Library was conceptualized by Nick Letts, Julian Dominic, and Tom Llewellyn. They spent the next two and a half years building community support and financial backing to start moving from concept to a real-life tool library.
What it reported doing in 2024
At the end of 2024 we have over 1000 current members who may check out tools from our extensive inventory with no fee above the yearly membership which is based on an honor system sliding scale of $50 to $250. We provided 136 full scholarships in 2024 valued at $150 each, the average membership fee. We offered classes and workshops on a variety of DIY topics in 2024 and next year will be developing new programs services to expand our capacity for the educational part of our mission. We are a volunteer run organization with a single part time employee so most of our expenses are program expenses. In 2024 there were some unusual program expenses related to disaster relief.
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 85% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Liabilities are high compared with assets.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 77
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 60.2%; rating input score 60
- Program expense ratio: 94.1%; rating input score 94
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 36.3%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.44; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 26.8% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 27.2% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 25.4% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 60.2% of revenue deployed · 94.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $100K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2018 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 30/100.