Hero Workshop

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
853534025
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022
Location
Culver City, CA, USA
Phone
3235592387
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Arts Service Organizations and Activities

Reported finances

Revenue
$794,361
Expenses
$738,007
Assets
$76,713
Liabilities
$18,908

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SCOTT STEVENS (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)

Highest reported compensation

  • SCOTT STEVENS (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $60,000 total reported compensation
  • Sabrina Saxton (Operations Executive): $41,506 total reported compensation
  • Claire Hatch (Operations Executive): $39,960 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Hero Workshop is an interactive storytelling community where young people come together in a safe and welcoming space to play tabletop role-playing games. Through these shared adventures participants build confidence develop leadership skills and strengthen their collaboration and narrative abilities. Our programs foster essential soft skills-such as communicating creative ideas building consensus and making informed group decisions-while also supporting academic growth in areas like math problem-solving reading writing and storytelling.

What it reported doing in 2025

The Hero Workshop delivers dynamic after-school enrichment programs that spark imagination foster academic growth in numeracy and algebraic thinking and build logic and problem-solving skills through teamwork collaboration and storytelling. This year we welcomed 31.8% more youth participants benefiting students from 9 local schools. In addition to our school-year offerings we host camps and workshops during spring summer and winter breaks. Our workshops nurture creativity self-awareness leadership and teamwork. This transformative program empowers teens and young adults to navigate identity transitions and personal growth-going beyond traditional mentorship. We also introduced a one-of-a-kind Story-Based Athletics Program featuring sword fighting and fitness classes that encourage participants to get active while engaging in imaginative adventures. To support our programs The Hero Workshop sells game-related merchandise-including dice figurines and shirts-which helps fund our mission and events.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 74% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
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

SUPPORTED - 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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 73%; rating input score 73
  • Program expense ratio: 78.6%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $17.07 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • 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: 7.1%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.1; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.25; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21.9%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 42.1% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 44.5% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 32.6% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 73% of revenue deployed · 78.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $580K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $60K · 8 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 42 of 43 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 7 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 6/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 22/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.