Essentials First
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 833737538
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2021, Form 990-N 2019
- Location
- Bellevue, WA, USA
- Phone
- 4252137810
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $406,291
- Expenses
- $438,437
- Assets
- $278,685
- Liabilities
- $3,311
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Nickhath Sheriff (CEO)
- Nabrath Sheriff (President)
- Laura Delmondo (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Nickhath Sheriff (CEO): $77,500 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Provide hygiene items and food care to individuals and families in need
What it reported doing in 2024
2024 was a big year, with three new locations and more than twice the number of clients picking up hygiene kits. Our newest location in Kent opened in a larger space on September 7, 2024. Our team continues working hard to keep up with the need and make sure everyone has dignified, reliable access to hygiene essentials. Our organization is unique; we are the only one systematically addressing hygiene insecurity in our region. As we face an immense and growing need for hygiene, our amazing staff, volunteers, and supporters continue showing up every day to keep the shelves full and doors open with warmth, creativity, and a shared vision for a healthier future. In 2024, the EF Community Kits Program provided essential hygiene supplies and other supports to 4,385 households made up of 15,232 individuals. Essentials First staff & Volunteers packed thousands of Essential Hygiene Kits and Street Kits Hosted hygiene drives with their schools, coworkers, churches, clubs, teams, and communities. We hosted tables at dozens of community outreach events, supported youth leaders in learning about and acting to address hygiene access inequity in their own homes, at school, and in their communities.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 93% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 74
- Transparency & Controls: 85
- Accountability: 56
- Sustainability: 28
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80.8%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 74.9%; rating input score 75
- Fundraising efficiency: $9.15 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th 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: 86.7%; rating input score 87; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- 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: -7.9%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.64; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 17.7%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 24.5% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 29.3% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 24.4% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 80.8% of revenue deployed · 74.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 15 board members independent · 1 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $328K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $78K · 15 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 23 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 37/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 44/100.