Community Desk Chicago

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
923414074
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
3126386992
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Urban, Community Economic Development

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,462,835
Expenses
$1,644,802
Assets
$3,263,088
Liabilities
$669,257

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Ja'Net Defell (President and CEO)
  • Nneka Onwuzurike (Executive Director of CWEB)

Highest reported compensation

  • Ja'Net Defell (President and CEO): $187,463 total reported compensation
  • Nneka Onwuzurike (Executive Director of CWEB): $140,222 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Community Desk Chicago ("the Desk") is an Illinois 501 (C)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to advance equitable economic prosperity in collaboration with historically under-resourced communities. The Organization serves as a help desk and works with nonprofits, community developers and entrepreneurs to assemble the necessary capital, expertise and other resources to develop brick-and-mortar projects that foster wealth building and a high quality of life.

What it reported doing in 2025

Wealth Our Way (WOW) - A new program launched in 2025 serving as the overarching initiative for shared ownership and wealth building models. The Desk's previous Community Investment Vehicle (CIV) programming is encompassed in this new initiative. These shared ownership models are emerging community development tools that help to support the revitalization of neighborhoods through real estate and small businesses. The City of Chicago seeded the WOW Capital Grant program with $4.1M to provide capital grants along with technical coaching to shared ownership models in Chicago. To date, $2.6M in capital grants were awarded. The Desk also supported an additional $1.6M in grants and loans for other shared ownership projects.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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 total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 70
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 94
  • Sustainability: 62
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 57.1%; rating input score 57
  • Program expense ratio: 85.4%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $83.3 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • 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: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 21st 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: 33.2%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.98; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 19.9%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 107.2% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 23.4% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 57.1% of revenue deployed · 85.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $1.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $187K · 10 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 45 of 45 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 57/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 57/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 35/100.