Black Oak Wilderness School Incorporated

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
850913296
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2022
Forms available
Form 990 2022
Location
Oakland, CA, USA
Phone
5106260808
Rating
62
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$316,378
Expenses
$350,882
Assets
$43,171
Liabilities
$71,812

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2022. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

2 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Dane Nelson (President/CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • Dane Nelson (President/CEO): $25,588 total reported compensation
  • Joanna Rasmussen (Treasurer): $9,695 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2022. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Outdoor /Wildreness Education to marginalized communities

What it reported doing in 2022

We provide outdoor and experiential educational electives fitting into STEAM academic and class G college preparatory electives. It has been shown using data from our schools, that students with access to these types of education receive higher grades in core classes such as Language, Mathematics, Science, and History. It has also shown that it both increases attendance and college acceptance rates, and decreases dropout rates. We also provide adults with instruction in Wilderness Survival Basics, Blacksmithing, Woodworking, Nature Connection and Animal Tracking

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 98% 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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 5
  • Sustainability: 17
  • Growth: NotEnoughData

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 96.8%; rating input score 97
  • Program expense ratio: 87.3%; rating input score 87
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 11
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -10.9%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.12; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.66; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.1%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: Limited
  • Asset growth: Limited

Details

  • Where the money goes: 96.8% of revenue deployed · 87.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 2 board members independent · 1 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $306K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $26K · 2 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 23/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 2/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 30/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.