Clay Pots...A Place to Grow

Legal name: Clay Pots Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
043607400
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2010
Location
Baltimore, MD, USA
Phone
(410) 233-1133
Rating
87
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Christianity
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$615,886
Expenses
$720,502
Assets
$214,307
Liabilities
$42,435

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • TAWANNA J KANE (EXECUTIVE DI): $90,015 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Clay Pots' mission is to provide a safe place for people in the neighborhood and beyond to explore their inner selves in a holistic manner. Education, art, emotional well-being, and/or physiological needs are all parts of the inner growth that helps to sustain life and the neighborhood.

What it reported doing in 2025

Clay potsa place to grow is a community-based nonprofit founded in 2002 with a mission to provide a safe and holistic space for residents of southwest baltimore to pursue personal growth, healing, and learning. Our work centers around education, health, wellness, and recovery support. While we have grown organically over the past 20 years, the need for strategic clarity and infrastructure development has become more pressing as demand for our services has increased and funding structures have shifted. Through more than two decades of innovation and community-responsive development, clay pots has established four target programming areas: education and employment, health and wellness, community and arts, and recovery and support. Within our programming areas there are numerous opportunities for this underserved community: full ged courses, including placement testing, practice tests, individual and small group tutoring, ged practice testing, abe (pre-ged adult basic education) classes and tutors, workforce development, computer classes, art classes, acupuncture, mental health support groups, na and a free community coffeehouse. Each program was developed based on community needs and is run by a combination of staff and our strong volunteer support network. The last programming arm, recovery and support, is the newest addition to our programming in an effort to acknowledge and support those affected by addiction. Within the past four years, we have built a peer recovery team and now offer harm reduction services through naloxone training and distribution, recovery support groups, and referrals to local services, including behavioral healthcare. 8799 total service encounters for 2025 including below. Our top three programs appear in bold. - ged assessment services - ged testing - ged classes - tutoring - adult basic education - yoga - coffeehouse - mindfulness - acupuncture - community events - harm reduction encounters: - case management - referrals - peer support' - outreach in addition, over 500 doses naloxone were distributed during this period.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 82% 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

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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 96
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 15
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 89.5%; rating input score 89
  • Fundraising efficiency: $459.54 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings

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: 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: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -17%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.3; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.2; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.5%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 18% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 24.6% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 24.7% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 12 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 89.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $645K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $90K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 8/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 30/100.