FoodWhat Incorporated
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 812590280
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Santa Cruz, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8314595476
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $4,436,494
- Expenses
- $1,901,452
- Assets
- $4,662,813
- Liabilities
- $95,742
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Paulina Moreno (Vice President)
- Tony Serrano (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Doron Comerchero (Co Exec. Dir.): $160,205 total reported compensation
- Irene O'Connell (Co Exec. Dir.): $146,475 total reported compensation
- Puiyee Tse (Finance Manager): $52,400 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
FoodWhat?! is a youth empowerment and food justice organization. Youth engage with land, food, and each other in ways that are grounded in love and justice. We provide space where youth define and cultivate their empowerment, liberation, wellbeing.
What it reported doing in 2025
Santa Cruz County youth joined FoodWhat through our Spring Internship, Summer Job Training, Fall Project Management and second-year programs. Our programs operate using a graduated leadership, embodied learning model across the three seasons. At FoodWhat, youth use organic farming, nourishing food, and loving community as vehicles to strengthen their well-being, career readiness, and socio emotional health. 78 youth successfully completed the Spring Internship, 35 youth successfully completed the Summer Job, and 27 youth successfully completed the Fall Program. These youth experienced outcomes related to accessing healthy food, diet change, job training, personal empowerment, socio emotional support, and environmentalconnectedness.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 79% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 52
- Transparency & Controls: 79
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 34.2%; rating input score 34
- Program expense ratio: 78.6%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $18.86 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: 57.1%; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.45; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 18.9%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 19.9% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 23.3% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 26.6% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 34.2% of revenue deployed · 78.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 7 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $1.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $160K · 9 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 34/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 57/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.