Imagine Worldwide
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 820990106
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2018–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Mill Valley, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4152975924
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Community Service Clubs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $41,457,525
- Expenses
- $24,722,965
- Assets
- $31,677,444
- Liabilities
- $1,796,502
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
16 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JOE WOLF (CEO)
- RAPELANG RABANA (CO-CEO)
- ANTONIE CHIGEDA (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MALAWI)
Highest reported compensation
- RAPELANG RABANA (CO-CEO): $271,400 total reported compensation
- JOE WOLF (CEO): $261,780 total reported compensation
- JENNIFER WELSH (BOARD SECRETARY): $244,636 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Imagine worldwide will empower every child, everywhere to build the literacy and numeracy skills they need to achieve their full potential.
What it reported doing in 2024
Imagine worldwide provides an innovative education technology solution to the global literacy/numeracy learning crisis. Their model is massively scalable, evidence-based, and can deliver foundational learning to millions of the most marginalized children. Imagine launched its first pilot in 2018 and now they are operating in 7 countries across sub-saharan africa. This includes malawi where imagine is partnering with the government to expand the tablet-based model to every primary school in the country, serving 3.5mm learners over the next 5 years. There is also enormous demand to replicate this model elsewhere in sub-saharan africa and imagine is expanding to scale similarly in several additional countries.
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 74% for direct work, and 26% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 83
- Sustainability: 70
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 57.6%; rating input score 58
- Program expense ratio: 95.1%; rating input score 95
- Fundraising efficiency: $72.96 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Fail
- Conducts field audits: Fail
- May suspend future funding: Fail
- Requires financial reports: Fail
- Conducts site visits: Fail
- Requires grant agreements: Fail
- May require repayment: Fail
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 77.8%; rating input score 78; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 40.4%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.28; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.8%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 49.4% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 47.1% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 40.9% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 57.6% of revenue deployed · 95.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $23.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $271K · 16 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.4M reported
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2018 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 9 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: Mission deployment rate scored 58/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.