Groundwork New Orleans

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
900456300
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2016, Form 990-N 2019
Location
New Orleans, LA, USA
Phone
2146997042
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Environmental Quality, Protection, and Beautification N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,340,566
Expenses
$1,286,239
Assets
$151,411
Liabilities
$155,032

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • YARROW ETHEREDGE (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • RAMIRO DIAZ (PRESIDENT)
  • TODD REYNOLDS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • TODD REYNOLDS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $102,400 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Groundwork new orleans engages local residents, businesses and government officials to revitalize neighborhoods and transform community liabilities into community assets. By changing places we change lives. Since 2006, gwnola has focused on neighborhood-based best management practices, or "bmps", implementing projects that mitigate storm water threats while improving quality of life, restoring ecosystems, and contributing to a healthier watershed that includes surrounding wetlands and the gulf of mexico estuaries. At the core of our programing is youth development through job and life skills training. The green team program employs youth ages 14-18, the ground crew program employs young adults 19-25, improvement and community development projects which focus on improving the quality of life in new orleans.

What it reported doing in 2024

Solar microgrid community hub (epa ejps) - groundwork new orleans and its partners seeks to prevent such tragic deaths from happening in the future. New orleans ranks among the top 10 cities in the u.s. For power outages from severe weather, which have doubled nationwide over the last 20 years, and the frequency and length of power failures are at their highest levels since reliability tracking began. Following hurricane ida, nearly one million new orleanians lost power; some residents remained in the dark more than one month later. When power outages occur, groundwork new orleans will be able to conduct needs assessments and provide for those needs by offering charging stations and small battery distribution, food preparation and distribution, cooling/heating stations, and wifi access. Total epa ejps ($116,878) with all other program services is $451,496.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 74% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 81% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 93
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 91.5%; rating input score 92
  • Program expense ratio: 95.4%; rating input score 95
  • Fundraising efficiency: $120.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th 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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: 4.1%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.12; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.02; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 25.5% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 26.6% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 21.7% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 91.5% of revenue deployed · 95.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $102K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2017 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 6/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 48/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 5/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 44/100.