Journey House Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
391203539
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Milwaukee, WI, USA
Phone
4146470548
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Neighborhood Centers

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,348,162
Expenses
$2,551,625
Assets
$10,457,751
Liabilities
$1,149,076

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

19 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ELIZABETH BENZ (PRESIDENT)
  • KEITH SIERRA (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • MICHELE BRIA (CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • MICHELE BRIA (CEO): $174,997 total reported compensation
  • CHARLES BROWN (DEPUTY DIRECTOR): $141,945 total reported compensation
  • CHANTAWN JACKSON (CONTROLLER): $119,635 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Journey house empowers families on milwaukee's near southside to move out of poverty by offering adult education, youth development, workforce readiness, and family engagement.

What it reported doing in 2024

Workforce readiness: our thrive career pathway and financial opportunity center assists low-income residents in finding fulfilling employment and offers financial coaching. Our thrive internship career pathways program, which is an intensive initiative featuring multi-week training courses aimed at preparing low-income youth and adults for the workforce. This includes career pathway training, sky breath meditation, and internships in various fields such as healthcare, construction and design, hospitality, and sports turf and landscaping.after-school program: journey house collaborates with longfellow school in the milwaukee public school system to provide students with a secure, structured, and supervised after-school environment. Our programs aim to enhance student achievement, offer alternatives to being home alone, provide a safe haven from negative influences, and deliver youth development initiatives that help students reach their full potential in academics, arts, and athletics.family engagement: we provide a variety of engaging activities and resources for families, including large-scale autumn and winter celebrations such as the halloween spooktacular, thanksgiving dinner, and winter wonderland.campus housing: our campus housing initiative aims to provide affordable housing for motivated youth who are homeless and aging out of foster care. Community garden: our community garden fosters a healthier community by creating gardens and organizing wellness activities. One of our notable achievements is the transformation of a vacant lot into a vibrant community garden, complete with a water gazebo. This gazebo collects rainwater and serves as a peaceful gathering space for neighbors to connect and grow food together.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 74% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 39
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 81.7%; rating input score 82
  • Program expense ratio: 74.7%; rating input score 75
  • Fundraising efficiency: $18.29 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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: 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: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -8.7%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.1; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17.1%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.3% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -0% per year; rating input score 0; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 81.7% of revenue deployed · 74.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 16 of 16 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $175K · 19 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 15/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 57/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 16/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 57/100.