Empowered
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 820972266
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 2027631187
- Rating
- 68
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $535,528
- Expenses
- $395,313
- Assets
- $346,954
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Scott Goldstein (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Gracy Obuchowicz (Director of Educator Wellness): $74,448 total reported compensation
- Scott Goldstein (Executive Director): $70,560 total reported compensation
- Gabrielle DuBose (Board Chair): $1,100 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our mission is to promote the ideas wellbeing and retention of DCs educators amplifying their solutions to create a more just and equitable education system for all DC students and families.
What it reported doing in 2024
Educator-Led Advocacy and Leadership: Under this program we continued to host our educator fellowship with 30 participating educators being trained as advocates organizers and leaders to improve the conditions at their school and work to identify and solve issues of educational inequity in the city at large. We also engaged and activated over 400 educators to take action through our policy and advocacy work this year to improve teacher retention and improve DCs education system informed by educator ideas and solutions. We achieved great success with teacher-led advocacy as well as former fellows and leaders moving into new leadership roles in the city.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 62
- Transparency & Controls: 77
- Accountability: 60
- Sustainability: 61
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 61.9%; rating input score 62
- Program expense ratio: 83.9%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 80%; rating input score 80; 0th 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: 71.4%; rating input score 71; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 44
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 26.2%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.88; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 37%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 80% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 28.2% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.1% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 61.9% of revenue deployed · 83.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 7 board members independent · 4 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $332K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $74K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 34 of 41 current checks pass · 7 findings to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX AllOtherExpenses column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX Insurance column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX OfficeExpenses column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX OtherEmployeeBenefits column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX PayrollTaxes column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX PensionPlanContributions column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.