City Parks Foundation Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
871292746
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Newark, NJ, USA
Phone
2013418311
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Public, Society Benefit N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,163,395
Expenses
$2,108,782
Assets
$1,247,637
Liabilities
$189,250

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MARCY S DEPINA (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • MARCY S DEPINA (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $153,682 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To encourage the city of newark to use their neighborhood parks by offering community-building programs that bring people into their local green spaces.

What it reported doing in 2024

City parks foundation, inc. Offers free public programs designed to engage with those who live, work and visit the city of newark. Our programs range from arts and culture, health and fitness, and environmental education and are accessible to all. The events intend to welcome people to utilize their public space and to build park stewardship. We work with a variety of partners including the city of newark, local non-profit, arts, and educational institutions and the community to create programs that directly benefit the city and its residents. New event programs added during the year were the fitness festival, a 3 day festival of fitness activations across all 5 parks including sports, health and wellness workshops, dance classes and a community bike ride and walk in may 2024, north 2 shore audible showcase featuring 3 days of music and dance performances and a vendor village at harriet tubman square on june 2024, caribbean festival celebrating caribbean culture with music and dance performances, vendors and a food pavilion held in august 2024, the off school time programming partnership with the united way hosting weekly events with area partners to engage youth with activities such as double dutch, steam workshops, music and dance classes and flag football (summer 2024).

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 66% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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 revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 69
  • Sustainability: 37
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.7%; rating input score 84
  • Program expense ratio: 85.6%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: $33.43 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • 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: 2.5%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.59; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.3%; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 23.1% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -1.9% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -34.2% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 83.7% of revenue deployed · 85.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $154K · 13 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $943K reported
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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: 5 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 43/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 21/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 40/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 50/100.