Elephante Commons
Legal name: Commons International
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 812963504
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2019
- Location
- Gulu, TX, Uganda
- Phone
- 0782 389 824
- Rating
- 42
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and Fund Distribution
- Affiliation
- Religious (unspecified)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $77,460
- Expenses
- $90,451
- Assets
- $39,717
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Andrew Nelson (President)
People named in this filing
- Andrew Nelson (President)
- James Coffey (Treasurer)
- David Nelson (Secretary)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To support leaders in Northern Uganda by providing infrastructure, network, and resources that allow local leaders to go from survival mode to transformation mode.
What it reported doing in 2025
2025 Fiscal Year Report to Our Fiscal Sponsor. 2025 was a big year for the Commons. More than 100,000 people came through these doors. We hosted over 800 events - thats classes, performances, dances, celebrations, and business meetings happening every day. We supported over 100 leaders working across 33 ventures. Our partners were able to accomplish so much this year, like Ribbo bringing the first coffee roaster to Northern Uganda, Gender Tech opening a community computer lab, and Watwero dance hosted their own theatre festival featuring local artists. We welcomed 11 new partners through the launch of our very own Venture Leadership Class. We are so excited to welcome partners like Stress Clinic, working to combat the stigma around mental health, River Poultry, training smallholder farmers on successful poultry rearing, and Ajura Fashions, creating eco-friendly african fabrics. We are so happy to welcome them to our community. The Commons has become a place where ideas turn into real ventures that are reshaping this community.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 0
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 34
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
- Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -16.8%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.44; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -65.9% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -16.9% per year; rating input score 0; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -19.5% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 9 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.