Fresh Start Women's Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
860762610
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Phoenix, AZ, USA
Phone
6022617128
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Service Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,927,243
Expenses
$7,930,370
Assets
$8,487,177
Liabilities
$1,994,485

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

39 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KIMBERLY MCWATERS (PRESIDENT/CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • KIMBERLY MCWATERS (PRESIDENT/CEO): $227,630 total reported compensation
  • PATTI O'BRIEN (CHIEF OF MARKETING/CLIENT EXPERIENCE): $225,209 total reported compensation
  • ABDERRAHIM DAHR (VP OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS): $174,527 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The mission of fresh start women's foundation is to provide access and resources that help women achieve self-sufficiency and use their strength to thrive. We do this work in pursuit of our vision to create unlimited opportunities for women and to... [continued on sch o]the mission of fresh start disrupt cycles of intergenerational poverty. The women we serve are unemployed or under-employed working in low-wage jobs without financial stability, most are mothers escaping domestic abuse and trauma. Many are single moms who struggle to provide for their children and to cover basic needs like food and housing. Fresh start's impact program helps women develop a personalized path out of poverty and across the bridge to self-sufficiency. The science-based and evidence informed model provides holistic wrap-around services across five key pillars of a woman's life and empowers her to achieve goals and behavioral changes necessary to reach and sustain economic mobility and independence.

What it reported doing in 2024

Career & education services: fresh start career services support women in their journeys to new and better training and employment. In fy25, fresh start provided 1,449 one-on-one career coaching sessions and a wide range of career readiness workshops spanning interviewing, job search strategy, resume writing, salary negotiation, and professional communication skill. Fresh start strengthened its best-practice workforce model this year through a suite of high-impact strategies that supported women from training through long-term career success. These included hosting four highly successful career fairs that connected women directly with hiring employers, expanding access to workforce training programs aligned with in-demand industries, offering personalized resume assistance and interview preparation, providing linkedin support to enhance digital professional branding, and delivering holistic post-placement coaching to help women retain employment and continue advancing. Together, these efforts created direct pathways to opportunity and economic mobility. As a result, over 200 women secured employment this fiscal year, taking significant strides toward financial independence. Fresh start offers a breadth of wrap around education offerings spanning the topics of financial and digital workplace literacy, parenting, healthy living, interpersonal skills and growth, goal setting, resiliency, and a wide variety of other personal and professional education topics. Classes, workshops, and webinars are facilitated by highly-trained staff and instructors, along with community professionals and experts. There were 11,897 workshop attendees this year, who reported a 94% overall satisfaction rate.fresh start offers unique scholarship opportunities and access to high quality training programs for our clients who are eager to pursue the next level of their education and career goals. In the past year, 350 women enrolled in a career training program. Fresh start awarded a total of $257,813 in career and workforce development scholarships, supporting women in gaining the skills necessary to excel in a new career pathway. Fresh start collaborates with numerous employers in the valley, including tsmc, intel, cvs, jpmorgan chase and bank of america to provide women access to career opportunities in today's top industries.

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 99% 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

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92.9%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 76.9%; rating input score 77
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 17; 17th 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: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • 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: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -33.8%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.23; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.5% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.9% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 92.9% of revenue deployed · 76.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 34 of 34 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $6.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $228K · 39 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $120K reported
  • Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2013 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 25/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.