Innercity Weightlifting Inc

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025, we supported 63 participants in employment and certified 65 as personal trainers. We worked with 200 participants overall (all of whom received wraparound support services), 23 corporate clients, and nearly 1,000 training clients. We completed our $15m, 5-year comprehensive campaign, enabling us to execute our 5-year strategic plan. In october, we celebrated our 15th anniversary, giving us the chance to reflect on how we've grown and where we're going.in january of 2010, we launched icw. We held our first weightlifting session in a basement gym, with four participants. As we descended the steps, we walked with excitement, wondering whether this would make a meaningful impact. We quickly evolved from a weightlifting program to a career track in personal training, with the aim of increasing economic mobility. We opened our first gym in 2012 and began to grow our client base. Today, we have 5 gyms in boston and our first dedicated gym in chicago. We've built the capacity to serve 200 participants annually, reaching nearly 1,000 unique clients, and have completed over 75,000 personal training sessions. We've generated more than $3 million in income for participants through internal employment and more than three times that amount through external employment. With pwc's help, we began tracking our social roi in 2018. Since then, we've generated over a $100 million return in cost savings for society, averaging more than a 10x return each year. We realized, however, during those early months of icw, that something more important was happening. Weight training, by itself, wasn't what was working. It was the community we built and the common identity we formed. We created a shared space where we could see and value each other's humanity. We were able to scrutinize the environmental factors people faced, rather than an individual. Through our career track in personal training, we were able to flip power dynamics and bridge social capital among participants and our training clients. Our work in bridging social capital has been cited by raj chetty and profiled on npr. It leads to broader perspectives and increased economic opportunity. It creates systems change starting at the individual level. People change their views and actions. They change their own hiring policies. They advocate for people they may never have otherwise known. This is the meaningful impact we have realized and grown in our first 15 years.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 79.6%; rating input score 80
• Program expense ratio: 77.3%; rating input score 77
• Fundraising efficiency: $7.58 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 26; 26th 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: Limited
• 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: 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: -1.5%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.59; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 16.2%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 10.3% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 11.1% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 16.2% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings