Forging Community
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 471789949
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2024–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2023
- Location
- Duluth, MN, USA
- Rating confidence
- Limited
- Sector
- Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $28,584
- Expenses
- $18,257
- Assets
- $76,756
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Caleb Shadis (President and Teacher)
- Paul Webster (Vice President Founder and treacher)
People named in this filing
- Warren Bettencourt (Teacher)
- Caleb Shadis (President and Teacher)
- Paul Webster (Vice President Founder and treacher)
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
Teaching Forging blacksmithing skills and techniques
What it reported doing in 2025
Teaching students directly: 400 students Demonstrating in public in front of approximately 150,000 people
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 77% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- 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
- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 63
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: Limited
- Program expense ratio: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 36.1%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.2; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 241.8%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: -24.7% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.4% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 5 of 5 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 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 — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 0/100.