Illuminative Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 921975377
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Washington, DC, USA
- Phone
- 3038575497
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $644,149
- Expenses
- $12,701,887
- Assets
- $0
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
15 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ANGEL CHARLEY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 1/1-3/2/25)
- CRYSTAL ECHO HAWK (CEO)
- MICHAEL JOHNSON (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- CRYSTAL ECHO HAWK (CEO): $706,974 total reported compensation
- MICHAEL JOHNSON (PRESIDENT): $591,410 total reported compensation
- COLLIN CZILLI (COO): $327,591 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our mission is to build power for native peoples by amplifying contemporary native voices, stories, and issues to advance justice, equity, and self-determination. We utilize research, narrative and culture change strategies, movement-building, and organizing to disrupt the invisibility of native peoples, re-educate americans, and mobilize public support for key native issues.
What it reported doing in 2025
Narrative power and impact (npi) houses research-informed storytelling, digital organizing, narrative strategy, media relations, and rapid response communications that educate, engage and activate native and allied audiences around key native issues. Through this program, we build narrative power for native peoples by generating, activating, and investing in native authored narratives and creative content across media platforms to grow and mobilize mass audiences who better understand and support native perspectives.in 2025, we completed a full website refresh to center our historical and new research. Illuminative launched indigenous house, a project to invest directly into content creators to develop audiences that are value aligned. The project is an opportunity for experimentation, learning, and creativity, as it seeks to replicate successful narrative ecosystem models for values aligned content. By leveraging values-based messaging, we can build a narrative that resonates with a broad audience and create a sense of shared purpose and commonality that bridges societal divides. Illuminative also transitioned our main social media channels in service of the legacy program indigenous house.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 68% for direct work, and 32% for grants.
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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 83
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 2
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 63.9%; rating input score 64
- Fundraising efficiency: $0.66 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.8%; rating input score 100; 54th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1,871.9%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 21.8%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 83.8% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -9.4% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -20.5% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 63.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $8.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $707K · 15 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3.2M reported
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 34 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 25 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 3/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.