Groundwork Jacksonville Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 472342111
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2015
- Location
- Jacksonville, FL, USA
- Phone
- 9045985605
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Natural Resources Conservation and Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,032,268
- Expenses
- $5,210,874
- Assets
- $3,461,146
- Liabilities
- $920,599
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- KAY EHAS (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- LEANA CIANFONI (DEVELOPMENT): $115,000 total reported compensation
- KAY EHAS (CEO): $97,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our mission is to bring about the sustained regeneration, improvement and management of the physical environment by developing community-based partnerships to promote environmental, economic and social well-being in the jacksonville, Florida area. The organization is a partnership between the city of jacksonville, us national park service, us environmental protection agency and groundwork USA, inc. And is one of 21 such trusts across the country. Groundwork jacksonville is specifically charged with designing and implementing a 30-mile bicycle/pedestrain trail and linear parks system, including the ecological restoration of mccoys and hogans creeks. The emerald trail will connect 14 urban neighborhoods, including downtown, and link to 16 schools, 2 colleges and 21 parks. This infrastructure investment is being made in majority black neighborhoods where 71% of residents are low-to-moderate income and 35% live in poverty.
What it reported doing in 2024
Emerald trail: the 2nd trail segment is under construction. The city center link is a 1-mile trail that goes through the heart of downtown along hogan street from the st. Johns river and connects to the springfield neighborhood and hogans creek. The 100% design of segment 3, the riverside link, will be underway in the 2nd quarter of 2026. It connects riverside to the north riverside neighborhood and mccoys creek. It traverses by a number of cultural institutions and parks, including the cummer museum of art & gardens, the jacksonville garden club, the riverside arts market, memorial park, and riverside park. The trail alignments for the remaining segments - 4, 6, 7 & 8 - is complete and the segments are now ready to move to design.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 64% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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
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: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 29
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 92.2%; rating input score 92
- Program expense ratio: 88.9%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $16.76 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 54; 54th 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: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- 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: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3.5%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.66; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.1%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 36.4% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 28.5% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 27.6% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 92.2% of revenue deployed · 88.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $4.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $115K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 54/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 23/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 24/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.