FORCE Detroit Inc

Overview

Mission

FORCE Faithfully Organizing Resources for Community Empowerment is a culmination of interfaith, grassroots and public sector leaders committed to having hard conversations about complex community issues, pushing boundaries and generating creative justice oriented solutions. We leverage media and culturally relevant strategies to connect people least likely to be engaged to civic infrastructures. Toward the goal of building a safer, freer Detroit, Force is committed the following programs and activities: Participatory Research we aim to drive and capture the experiences of their constituencies and support them to create academically sound research that gives voice to otherwise ignored community concerns. Narrative Building pairs participatory research efforts with media creation and communications strategy to ensure that community voice is represented in public dialogue. Youth and Millennial Organizing seeks to deepen the community organizing and civic leadership capacity of youth and m

Operating model

Revenue model

Donor-supported. 70% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.

Distribution model

Direct operator. The filing allocates 85% 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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of voting board members are independent.

Rating breakdown

• Financial Efficiency: 43
• Transparency & Controls: 62
• Accountability: 36
• Sustainability: 60
• Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Details

• Where the money goes: 35.3% of revenue deployed · 51.8% of spending went to programs
• Governance: 0 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 7 filing controls reported
• Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.7M in reported program spending
• Leadership: top reported pay $390K · 5 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
• Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $234K reported
• Consistency: 31 of 33 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
• Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
• Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
• Contacts: How to reach this organization
• Money network: 10 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

• Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 35/100.
• High — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
• High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
• Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 52/100.
• Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 59/100.
• Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Board meeting minutes documented not reported.
• Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
• High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.
• Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
• Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule G fundraiser detail did not reconcile in the filed values.
• Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 56/100.
• High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.