Deep Medicine Circle

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
862763469
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Oakland, CA, USA
Phone
4158102903
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Nonmonetary Support N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$794,089
Expenses
$1,385,541
Assets
$522,521
Liabilities
$31,808

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

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Rupa Marya (Executive Dir.): $91,250 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The Deep Medicine Circle is a nonprofit organization dedicated to healing the wounds of colonialism through food, medicine, story and learning. Starting from a place of correcting relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, we cultivate a culture of care to support the health and healing of people, and communities of plants and animals which are critical for our survival and thriving.

What it reported doing in 2025

The organization primarily focused on food production, with an estimated 50,000 lbs of organic food from our two farms. All of this food was given to an estimated 2000 households experiencing food insecurity in the San Francisco Bay Area through a network of community partnerships. We continued to capture and analyze our data on food production, labor hours, soil quality, water quality, biodiversity and impact of food production and delivery on farmers and community members. The organization also conducted job training for Urban Youth on techniques to grow food and steward land through agroecology and traditional ecological knowledge. Our educational programs also involved bringing pediatrics medical residents to the farm to learn about food as medicine and farming techniques that increase the nutritious quality of food as well as hosting 60 Oakland Technical High School students in learning about urban agroecology in their Environmental Sciences class. We continued to convene advisors to deepen our programming to bridge Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships and supported the work of the Confederation of Ohlone People, a nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting Ohlone culture in the Bay Area as they build their capacity to take over land ownership at the 38-acre rural farm we will continue stewarding. Finally, we continued our practices in storytelling circles and art practices that are related to plants and the earth.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 82% 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 available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 87
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 60
  • Sustainability: 16
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 81.8%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $11.5 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 1st 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: 50%; rating input score 50; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -74.5%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.38; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.6%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 22.3% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -7.8% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -5.2% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 81.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 2 of 4 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $91K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 31 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • 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.
  • 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 50/100.
  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule G fundraiser detail did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 41/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 47/100.