Common Good City Farm
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 800365344
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2011
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2025597513
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Food Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $965,535
- Expenses
- $970,320
- Assets
- $394,489
- Liabilities
- $187,867
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Joya Wade (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Joya Wade (Executive Director): $56,135 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Common Good City Farm is an urban farm in Washington, DC, where community members source fresh food, see sustainable urban agriculture in action, and learn healthy skills. Our mission is to sustain and support a more equitable community through growing, learning, cooking, and sharing fresh food together. Our two-fold approach combats food insecurity and increases the short and long-term health and wellness of our community: meeting immediate needs by putting food on tables and addressing systemic injustices with free education and events. We serve Wards 1 and 5 and the residents of LeDroit Park, which has been deeply divided by gentrification. Common Good focuses on low-income students, teens, elderly, and residents with disabilities. Since 2008, our farm has been a place where all members of our community can come to eat, learn, and play in ways that contribute to health, community, and environmental sustainability.
What it reported doing in 2024
Common Good City Farm is a place where community members can source fresh food, see sustainable urban agriculture in action, and gain exposure to concepts and skills to lead healthy lives. Common Good City Farm actively engages all members of our diverse community and creates opportunities for connection, contributing to the vibrancy and sense of place in our community. In 2024 we produced over 4500 pounds of produce. We support social services and community health and hunger through our Pay-What-You- Can Farm Stand, ensuring that all visitors can walk away with fresh fruits and vegetables regardless of their ability to pay. We serve 300+ families per year, and in 2024 Common Good provided over $15,000 in discounts to customers unable to afford full price, and distributed a total of $38,000 of produce and farm market products. We serve over 120 youth each year in our out of school time program on the farm, offered 4 days each week and serve 25 teens with a daily program for 6 weeks in the summer.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 72
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 75%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 74.6%; rating input score 75
- Fundraising efficiency: $15.21 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st 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: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -0.5%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.41; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.48; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.8%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 18% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 12.6% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 75% of revenue deployed · 74.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $724K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $56K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 35 of 35 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 34/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 51/100.