Embrace Her Legacy Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
825209981
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Phone
3476780636
Rating
61
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Development Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$17,758
Expenses
$16,117
Assets
$2,659
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Maria Melendez (CEO and Chair of the Board of Directors)

Highest reported compensation

  • Maria Melendez (CEO and Chair of the Board of Directors): $4,255 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Embrace Her Legacy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit personal development organization dedicated to equipping millennial women and Gen Z girls with the tools needed to overcome internal and external challenges in fulfilling a purpose-driven legacy.

What it reported doing in 2025

Embrace Her Legacy Academy: NYC Summer Institute - Our Embrace Her Legacy Academy is a social-emotional, personal development and leadership development program offered to women ages 14-21. The institute is targeted to girls who demonstrate strong leadership and academic ability. With small cohorts of 10-15 students, we equip these young women with the tools needed to achieve success in self-confidence, personal development, career, education and leadership. Our goal is to ignite a powerful and emotionally healthy relationship with self while using that as the foundation to realize personal and professional goals. Because of our intimate group size, each student gets the individualized attention that she deserves in a psychologically safe space. Additionally, we provide workshops, media network, scholarships and coaching focused on social-emotional, personal, and leadership development, specifically serving millennial women and Gen Z girls of color in New York City and nationwide.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 96% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 50
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 62
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 54.5%; rating input score 54
  • Program expense ratio: 60%; rating input score 60
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 9.2%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.16; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 26.4%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -5.9% per year; rating input score 0; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -8.5% per year; rating input score 0; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -3% per year; rating input score 0; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 54.5% of revenue deployed · 60% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $10K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $4K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 18 of 19 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • 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.

Key Signals

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

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 54/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.