Bay Area Creative BAC

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
832011288
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Hayward, CA, USA
Phone
9492859086
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Education N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,217,053
Expenses
$1,155,552
Assets
$180,352
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Katherine Whitcraft (President)
  • Seana Condit-Gordon (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Patrick Ohslund (Deputy Director): $74,544 total reported compensation
  • Michael Taylor (Executive Dir.): $72,254 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Bay area creative supports positive change through creative and expressive arts that uphold cultures, provide therapeutic benefits, and to enhance communication skills primarily in underrepresented communities. We are driven by our resolute mission to actively disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, champion marginalized cultures, and carve out a sanctuary for unbridled self-expression.

What it reported doing in 2024

Rich Oak became a program of bay area creative this year and continued to produce the Berkeley slam, the longest running poetry slam on the west coast. Rich oak brings together local known and new poets (including poets in the sparc program) with well-known poets from around the world for a weekly slam in the bay area. Audience and performers form a diverse reflection of the bay area community including bipoc, aapi, Latinx, lgbtq+, and all other types of identifying performers to a single stage. Serving an audience of combined total of more than 2,790 people in 78 shows between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025. 55 featured performers headlined and over 378 poets and artists performed at rich oak events.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 80% 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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 40
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 81.8%; rating input score 82
  • Program expense ratio: 86.1%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.08 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 5.1%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.16; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.7%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 18.8% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 30.7% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 81.8% of revenue deployed · 86.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $995K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $75K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 20 of 20 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.