Community Empowerment Nfp

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
812760427
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2015
Location
Evanston, IL, USA
Phone
8476878544
Rating
72
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
International Relief

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$549,185
Expenses
$559,385
Assets
$325,245
Liabilities
$80,058

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • STEPHANIE CRANE MD (FOUNDER/PRESIDENT)
  • JESSICA VLAMING (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • JESSICA VLAMING (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $60,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The organization works with local leadership in underserved communities, primarily in haiti and dominican republic, to provide essential health care, while creating a self-sustaining system.

What it reported doing in 2024

This year 22 teams worked in the dominican republic - 8 primary care teams, 8 surgical teams, 2 audiology, and 2 non-medical teams. These teams included 214 volunteers. However, the situation in haiti remained too unstable with a high level of danger so no teams worked in haiti. Our staff of 5 started working in a new clinic located in delmas 103 in june 2025. However, community empowerment assisted in providing essential healthcare by being involved in 3,701 medical visits in the dominican republic; 380 procedures were completed; and 436 audiology visits were performed. Physical medicine and rehabilitation providers accompanied an orthopedic team and saw 289 patients. The clinic in villa verde was transferred to the ministry of health in the dr who took on financial and medical responsibilities. Community empowerment continued working with the new community of duquesa which sits on the largest garbage dump in santo domingo and is made up primarily of haitian refugees. In august 2025 community empowerment started working with a new community, oregano grande which is 2 hours northwest of santo domingo and will have teams there every 3 - 4 months. This year, community empowerment continued to provide support as needed to the peralta and villa verde clinics which continues to be operated by the local community boards and financially supported by the dominican ministry of health.in santo domingo, the guest house was used for the medical and surgical teams as well as the community empowerment office.

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 94% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 67
  • Transparency & Controls: 72
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 29
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 76.2%; rating input score 76
  • Program expense ratio: 74.8%; rating input score 75
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Pass
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 76.5%; rating input score 76; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: -1.9%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.58; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.25; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.7%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 0.3% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 76.2% of revenue deployed · 74.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $418K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $60K · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 30/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 28/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 34/100.