Grounds Krewe NOLA Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 841839692
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2019
- Location
- New Orleans, LA, USA
- Phone
- 5048750309
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Environmental Quality, Protection, and Beautification N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $438,681
- Expenses
- $366,876
- Assets
- $472,969
- Liabilities
- $24,339
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Charles Brett Davis (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Charles Brett Davis (President): $71,731 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Grounds Krewe is a 501c3 non-profit with a mission to promote waste prevention, recycling and sustainable products at New Orleans special events. Our vision is to help foster a festival culture that retains all of its enjoyment, while having the lowest impact possible on our community spaces and planet's resources by creating a setting in which environmental stewardship is both convenient and contagious.
What it reported doing in 2025
Grounds Krewe conducts several initiatives aimed at reducing event waste with a focus on the 2.6 million pounds of trash that fills New Orleans streets and storm drains during just 12 days of Carnival Season. Notable programs include: 1 The Sustainable Throw Catalog reverses the quantity-over-quality trend with Mardi Gras throws and meets a growing market demand for parade throws that are affordable, functional, made from sustainable materials and promote Louisiana products and people. Currently in its fifth year of operation, the Sustainable Throw Catalog has sold over 760,000 throws to date. 2 The On the Route parade recycling program, Recycle Dat in partnership with the city of New Orleans and several other local partners provides recycling hubs and stations along the St. Charles Avenue parade route during weekend day parades. Parade-goers can recycle glass, aluminum cans and plastic bottles, and donate unwanted parade throws for reuse.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 96% 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
SUPPORTED - 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: 69
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 83
- Sustainability: 51
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 73.9%; rating input score 74
- Program expense ratio: 70.5%; rating input score 70
- Fundraising efficiency: $11.89 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 20th 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: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- 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: 16.4%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.29; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 19.6%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 38% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 33.2% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 22.4% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 73.9% of revenue deployed · 70.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $259K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $72K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 42/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 48/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.