Bay Area Women Leader Network

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
471938087
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2016
Location
Oakland, CA, USA
Phone
4154074730
Rating
72
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fund Raising and Fund Distribution

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,696,965
Expenses
$2,001,767
Assets
$-374,713
Liabilities
$145,464

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Julie Abrams (Founder, CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • Julie Abrams (Founder, CEO): $241,742 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

How Women Lead elevates diverse women in the corporate, public, philanthropic, and and nonprofit sectors by cultivating a robust network that trains and connects women executives who are catalysts in their fields. We collectively donate to organizations serving women and girls. Our transformative leadership training propels leaders forward and we create supportive networks that help break the glass ceiling.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025 we offered a robust calendar of leadership, training and networking events including monthly events, our virtual GetOnBoard Week conference, and trainings to teach investing basics. Our monthly events garnered over 3500 attendees in 2025 and including topics such as Corporate Board Readiness Training, Interpreting Financial Statements, and Introduction to Angel and Venture Investing. In 2025, we hosted our sixth hybrid 5-day conference focused on gender diversity on corporate boards. We held over 40 events on skill building, board readiness, networking and timely topic panel discussions for over 2000 guests across the US.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 100% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 86
  • Transparency & Controls: 64
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 7
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 89.7%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: $0 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 81.8%; rating input score 82; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 82.2%; rating input score 82; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -18%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: -0.19; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.1%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -70.1% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 89.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 2 of 3 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $242K · 3 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 39 of 41 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 1/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 32/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.