Empty Bowls Wichita Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
333832774
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
Wichita, KS, USA
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Food Programs

Reported finances

Revenue
$82,356
Expenses
$6,125
Assets
$76,231

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Brenda Lichman (Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • Brenda Lichman (Executive Director)
  • Sonia Greteman (Director and Chair)
  • Mike Michaelis (Director and Vice Chair)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

Empty Bowls Wichita is a community-driven fundraising event dedicated to fighting food insecurity in Wichita. Guests contribute $35 at the annual chili cook-off and select from hundreds of handcrafted bowls generously made by local artists students and community members. With their chosen bowls attendees enjoy a diverse selection of chili and soups donated by local chefs and food industry partners. The goal of the event is to foster awareness of hunger in the community and promote action against it. Fundraising proceeds are donated to local food pantries and hunger relief organizations.

What it reported doing in 2025

Annual Community Ceramics Exhibition: Empty Bowls Wichita organizes annual ceramics exhibitions in association with other local partners and hosted by Reuben Saunders Gallery. Holding this exhibition showcasing contemporary ceramic art is both part of EBWs mission to advance the arts and to fulfill the other part of its mission food assistance. Participating ceramicists donate two bowls to the Empty Bowls Wichita Chili Cook-Off. This ceramic art is for sale to the public during a month-long exhibition at Reuben Saunders Gallery. The Gallery contributes a portion of its commission from artwork sales to Empty Bowls Wichita. In 2025 Empty Bowls Wichita raised $2,123 from this program. These proceeds will help EBWs mission to support local hunger relief programs such as the Pando Initiative and HumanKind Ministries.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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 - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filed totals do not add up.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 48
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 81
  • Growth: NotEnoughData

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 16%; rating input score 16
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 92.6%; rating input score 99; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 12.45; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: Limited
  • Asset growth: Limited

Details

  • Where the money goes: 16% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $13K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 13 people listed
  • Consistency: 6 of 7 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 16/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III program expenses within total did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.