Association of California Water Agencies Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 920785873
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
- Location
- Folsom, CA, USA
- Rating
- 40
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Public, Society Benefit N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $112,667
- Expenses
- $196,918
- Assets
- $287,680
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
People named in this filing
- John Varela (Chair)
- Jennifer Persike (Vice Chair)
- Kari Shively (Treasurer)
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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The ACWA Foundation exists to serve Californians by advancing opportunity for all within the water industry through education research and workforce development.
What it reported doing in 2025
Research on how to inspire students to consider a water career
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 74% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 19
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Sustainability: 28
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 21.9%; rating input score 22
- Program expense ratio: 12.7%; rating input score 13
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -74.8%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.46; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: -64.1% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -9.1% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 21.9% of revenue deployed · 12.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $25K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 22/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 13/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.