Grassroot Projects

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
821063744
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2019
Location
Sammamish, WA, USA
Phone
3179227886
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fund Raising and Fund Distribution

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$573,841
Expenses
$625,708
Assets
$224,803
Liabilities
$651

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Sarah Tharp (President)
  • Graham Melendez (Secretary / Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Nimisha Goyal (Board Member / Part-time Exec. Dir. (WA)): $50,681 total reported compensation
  • Priya Gangwani (Board Member / Part-time Exec. Dir. (IN)): $40,078 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Grassroot Projects empowers under-resourced immigrant and refugee children in the greater Seattle and Indianapolis areas by providing custom care packages tailored to basic needs, funding extracurricular activities through the Sponsor a Passion program, and addressing food insecurity with culturally sensitive groceries.

What it reported doing in 2024

Grassroot Projects provides the following services to help under-resourced immigrant/refugee families as they struggle to resettle into a new country and call it their home: a) Care Packages: These include basic essentials for children/babies ranging from diapers, wipes, formula, seasonal clothing, car seats, and school supplies to culturally-appropriate groceries. b) Sponsor a Passion: We provide sponsorships for children to pursue their passions/talents such as gymnastic classes, swimming, tumbling, art classes, and such. Our goal is to help these kids enjoy their childhood and experience the power of play. c) Healthy Families program through which grocery gift cards are given to help purchase culturally-relevant foods that aren't otherwise easily accessible to families that are food insecure. d) Early literacy program to promote the joy of reading by adopting 1-3 elementary and middle schools every year, where kids are able to choose from a variety of free books that reflect diversity. Children's books are also a part of each care package as book ownership is proven to promote literacy. Also as part of our Back to School program, kids are provided new backpacks filled with all the essential school supplies to help them start a new school year with confidence. We assisted 3,225 children from 1,137 households in 2024 for immigrant families from 32 different countries. In 2024, the organization received donated professional service hours from its board members and volunteers for sustaining operations and increasing outreach. A total of 6,472 volunteer hours were received in 2024.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% 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

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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 69
  • Sustainability: 25
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 91.6%; rating input score 92
  • Program expense ratio: 84%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $8.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 77.8%; rating input score 78; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -9%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.36; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 14.5%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 21.9% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 17.4% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 8 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
  • Where the money goes: 91.6% of revenue deployed · 84% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 9 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $526K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $51K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.