California Women Lead

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
510184448
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Sacramento, CA, USA
Phone
9167165941
Rating
69
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Women's Studies

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$353,249
Expenses
$270,766
Assets
$66,054
Liabilities
$6,596

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

Leadership & pay

16 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MYEL THELEN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • SABRINA ASHJIAN (PRESIDENT)
  • NANETTE FARAG (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • MYEL THELEN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $137,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

California women lead is dedicated to advancing the role of women at all levels of the public and private sectors by enhancing and strengthening women's leadership contributions through nonpartisan training, education programs and network development opportunities.

What it reported doing in 2025

Ca legislative women's caucus & ca women lead partnership : California women lead co-hosts power luncheons with the California legislative women's caucus to provide meaningful and complimentary programming that will support and grow women's leadership skills in the state legislature and caucus members' districts.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 85% 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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 49
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 42
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 49.3%; rating input score 49
  • Program expense ratio: 64.3%; rating input score 64
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 20th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: 23.3%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.24; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.1; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 50.6%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.3% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.9% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.5% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 49.3% of revenue deployed · 64.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 15 of 15 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $174K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $137K · 16 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 23 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 13 filing years from 2013 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 49/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 14/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 22/100.