He She Ze and We
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 371964125
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- Richmond, VA, USA
- Phone
- 8046519178
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $317,082
- Expenses
- $290,912
- Assets
- $234,126
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SHANNON MCKAY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- MEREDITH HERTZLER (BOARD PRESIDENT EMERITUS)
- APRIL JOHNSON (PRESIDENT)
- EMMA YACKSO (VICE PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- SHANNON MCKAY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $93,961 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Supporting transgender and nonbinary people by empowering their families, communities, and allies to create life-saving, inclusive environments through education and support programing.
What it reported doing in 2024
He She Ze and We Family Connections Program: Positive social interactions with peers is essential for healthy social, intellectual, and emotional development of all children. There is a nationwide attack on Transgender and Nonbinary Youth which is negatively impacting our families. During these extremely volatile times in our society, He She Ze and We brings families together to foster the growth of community close to home. Trans youth and their families need to know that they are seen, understood, accepted, and celebrated Family Connections programming takes families out into their local communities to feed their souls by engaging in group activities...just for fun This program compliments our educational support for adult family members by inviting siblings into the mix so that they too feel supported and valued, as well as experience first hand the natural variances of gender identity and expression amongst peers. For each locality, various relationships are forming with other organizations and businesses that are willing to provide a welcoming environment. Family Connections is organized and run by our Community Engagement and Events Coordinator. The goal is to lift up this vibrant community and help our children not only survive, but THRIVE Family Connections events happened in 2-4 regions across VA in 2024/2025 with Richmond and Charlottesville having the most in attendance.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 87
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 48
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 69.3%; rating input score 69
- Program expense ratio: 75.6%; rating input score 76
- Fundraising efficiency: $20.03 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 8.3%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.8; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 32.3%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 51.4% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 32.3% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.2% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 69.3% of revenue deployed · 75.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $220K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $94K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 58/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.