Economic Development Collaborative- Ventura County

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
770439585
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Camarillo, CA, USA
Phone
8053841800
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Urban, Community Economic Development

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$8,553,742
Expenses
$8,375,903
Assets
$15,009,671
Liabilities
$10,548,814

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

Leadership & pay

37 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • BRUCE STENSLIE (President & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • BRUCE STENSLIE (President & CEO): $269,279 total reported compensation
  • Jaime S Fall (Director): $210,909 total reported compensation
  • RAY BOWMAN (Director of Small Business Dev Cent): $207,862 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 EDC creates empowered business owners, connected community partners and informed civic leaders in the greater Ventura and Santa Barbara County region. Established in 1996, we are a 501(c)3 non-profit public/private partnership corporation, dedicated to growing the regions economy. Our vision is for stewarding a strong and healthy Ventura and Santa Barbara regional economy with a high quality of life and broadly shared opportunities.

What it reported doing in 2024

The Economic Development Collaborative-Ventura County (EDC-VC) is a public/privatepartnership that provides businesses with professional consulting, training and lending services to help business thrive and add jobs. For 2024:"Continuing to serve as fiscal agent and co-convener of Uplift Central Coast. Shaping an equitable recovery from COVID-19, this partnership draws us into dialogue with all manner of stakeholders across the Central Coast. That dialogue provides guidance to our current distribution of $9 million in state "Catalyst" grants to promote an equitable regional economic recovery. "Our Ventura County Digital Upskilling Training Program continues on two main fronts: a partnership with the Ventura County Adult Schools Consortium, for computer basics training, and a "Get Your Small Business Online" curriculum for entrepreneurs and small business owners, in collaboration with Women's Economic Ventures. This Digital Upskilling initiative is a pilot project with online replication toolkits available to other workforce and economic development training organizations."Our collaboration and participation in FATHOMWERX continues, in partnership with commands at Navy Base Ventura County, the Port of Hueneme and MatterLabs, serving as a public/private laboratory, community , and resource for technological innovation, striving to fuse small and non-traditional companies, academic institutions and other Department of Defense stakeholders together to work on the most challenging problems in miliary, port and maritime domains."Continuing partnership in support of Early Child Education, promoting a broad and stable early care ecosystem, including technical assistance and lending contributing to vibrant and competitive home-based and child care center businesses, and, especially, the highest quality care for children and support networks for working parents. Key initiatives and partnerships include the Isabella project-involving a broad coalition of partners committed to a pilot project to make highest-quality early childhood education available to 100% of 0- to 5-year-olds in the community of Santa Paula-and `the "Shared Services Alliance," a partnership with First 5 Ventura County, the County Office of Education and Child Development Resources of Ventura County."Serving as fiscal agent and managing partner of the Broadband Consortium of the Pacific Coast, in partnership with the Ventura Council of Governments developed the Ventura County Regional Broadband Initiative and Last Mile Connections Framework and continue to partner with the County of Santa Barbara for its regional plan implementation. "Finally, we continue our collaboration with the California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz): oThe GO-Biz Office of the Small Business Advocate designated EDC as an Accelerate CA: Inclusive Innovation Hub providing $1 million over four years to support technology-based firms and expanding opportunities for women and minority-owned businesses.oEDC was awarded some $900,000 to augment our federal U.S. Small Business Administration funding, helping to assure we maintain our high level of services as we recover from the pandemic.oOur lending programs and borrowers benefitted from nearly $3 million in loan guarantees from the GO-Biz Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.oIn our role as the Ventura County Film Commission, we serve as an extension of the California Film Commission, also an office within GO-Biz.

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 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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filed totals do not add up.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 96
  • Transparency & Controls: 61
  • Accountability: 98
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 94.9%; rating input score 95
  • Program expense ratio: 96.9%; rating input score 97
  • Fundraising efficiency: $502.88 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 13th 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: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 96.8%; rating input score 97; 26th 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: 2.1%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.79; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.7; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.5%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 23.4% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 22.7% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 16.3% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 94.9% of revenue deployed · 96.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 30 of 31 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $8.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $269K · 37 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.7M reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 41/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 13/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.