Commonweal

What it reported doing in 2024

RESILIENCE: Commonweals Resilience program is an umbrella that includes both The Resilience Project and Omega. The Resilience Project (TRP) builds on four decades of work at Commonweal on healing ourselves and healing the earth. TRP focuses on the polycrisismore than two dozen environmental and social stressors that have created a perfect storm of human and biosphere threats. TRP goals: Empower people, projects & practices to meet the Global Challenge; welcome diverse views across the global spectrum; encourage respectful dialogues across regions & cultures; inspire creative responses to the polycrisis. Stanley Wu serves as director. Omega incubates new initiatives for living in and through the global polycrisis. Omegas goal is to help build the nascent field of polycrisis research and action. This includes: (1) to map the best thinking on the polycrisis, (2) to identify the global network of those working toward creative solutions, (3) to identify the community of those who can work together to strengthen resilience, and (4) to identify and support specific projects with special value added. Omegas initiatives include: The Omega Collaborative, a steadily growing working group of partners around the world committed to a better future through a focus on systemic risk, interconnected and intersecting stressors, complexity, equity, governance, and the full range of issues threatening civilization; and The Omega Resilience Awards (ORA), which provides fellowships, research grants, and media creation to support new models of thinking, leadership, communication, and engagement in response to the challenges of the global polycrisis. Michael Lerner serves as director. (omega.ngo)

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 78.9%; rating input score 79
• Program expense ratio: 82.7%; rating input score 83
• Fundraising efficiency: $16.65 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 10th 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: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
• Grant itemization coverage: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 21st percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 16th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 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: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 5.7%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.26; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 9.1%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings