Friends of Roots
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 453594189
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2018–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2017, Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4153229338
- Rating
- 64
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts, Cultural Organizations - Multipurpose
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $69,247
- Expenses
- $65,240
- Assets
- $279,517
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- BRIAN YEE (President)
- ELSIE LAM (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- BRIAN YEE (President)
- ELSIE LAM (Vice President)
- ANDY FONG (Secretary)
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
Friends of roots offers individuals and families the opportunity to discover the roots that link them to ancestral beginnings in guangdong province, china. It furthers education, research, documentation and archiving of asian american genealogy and cultural heritage. The organization has a close and cooperative relationship with the overseas chinese affairs office of guangdong province.
What it reported doing in 2025
Roots summer is a year-long program for young adults ages 18 to 30. In 2017, 11 roots interns were selected in january. In february, an informal meeting was held so that the years interns could meet each other. A series of saturday seminars and activities were conducted from march through june. Interns toured san francisco chinatown, conducted research at the national archives, and toured angel island immigration station. Interns attended seminars on chinas history and geography and the chinese american community. Scholars and writers such as judy young and ruthanne lum mccunn served as guest speakers. The final pre-trip seminar was held in june and included final preparations and a briefing for the trip to china. After exploring their chinese roots in america through the activities previously mentioned, participants explored their roots in china through visits to their ancestral villages and other historical and cultural sites in guangdong province. Upon their return from china, the interns continued our mission and values. Paula madison, retired nbc executive, was the 2017 keynote guest speaker. She wrote a book, finding samuel lowe: from harlem to china, and made a documentary about her search for her hakka chinese grandfathers family. She is of jamaican black and chinese ancestry and grew up in harlem.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 54
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 56
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 52.3%; rating input score 52
- Program expense ratio: 55.5%; rating input score 56
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.8%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.28; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -25.7% per year; rating input score 0; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -14.1% per year; rating input score 0; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 52.3% of revenue deployed · 55.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $36K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2018 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 52/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 56/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 54/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.