Black Womens Agenda
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 521139558
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2027302637
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Professional Societies, Associations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,136,571
- Expenses
- $1,005,177
- Assets
- $852,852
- Liabilities
- $137,108
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
25 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- GWAINEVERE CATCHINGS HESS (PRESIDENT)
- VIVIAN PICKARD (IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- GWAINEVERE CATCHINGS HESS (PRESIDENT)
- KIMBERLY JEFFRIES LEONARD PHD (VP FOR ADMINISTRATION)
- MARY E N CLARK (VP FOR PROGRAMS)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Black Women's Agenda, Inc. (BWA) was founded in 1977 to highlight and address those issues that uniquely impact the lives of Black women and their families. BWA continues to work tirelessly to serve millions of women in the areas of education, health and economic empowerment.
What it reported doing in 2024
A disproportionate number of black women are represented within statistics related to poverty, and lack access to economic and educational opportunity. The Black Women's Agenda, Inc. (BWA) is devoted to advancing, securing, and protecting the rights of these women. Constantly, the women of BWA strive to acquire greater understanding and cooperation about issues that affect all women and their families, while searching for new knowledge and new conceptualizations about said problems. Through the establishment of social priorities (an agenda), BWA facilitates discussions that lead to effective policies and meaningful change. Their continuous vigilance on issues affecting Black women worldwide empower women to step up and mitigate the gender gaps that affect women in our society.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 67% 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
STRONG - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 70
- Sustainability: 55
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.6%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 90%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: $59.51 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 5th 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: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: 11.6%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.85; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.16; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79.6% of revenue deployed · 90% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 31 of 31 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $905K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 25 people listed
- Consistency: 40 of 41 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2012 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.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 35/100.