Larkin Street Youth Services
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 942917999
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2023
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, US
- Phone
- (415) 673-0911
- Rating
- 85
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Children's, Youth Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $33,313,909
- Expenses
- $36,717,319
- Assets
- $29,019,824
- Liabilities
- $16,328,126
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
34 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Sherilyn Adams (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Sherilyn Adams (CEO): $291,281 total reported compensation
- Al Middlebrooks (CFO): $224,657 total reported compensation
- Ilsa Lund (Chief of Strategy): $219,913 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Larkin Street Youth Services works to end youth homelessness by providing housing, education, employment, and wellness support to young people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.
What it reported doing in 2024
Housing services: Last fiscal year, Larkin Street served more than 1,700 homeless and runaway youth, ages 12-24, in San Francisco and the East bay through our direct services. Larkin Street's housing services help youth move from crisis to stability. As the bay area's largest nonprofit housing provider exclusively serving youth experiencing homelessness, Larkin Street offers well over 445 beds of transitional, education and employment services: After we have helped youth resolve supportive, and subsidized housing for two years or more. More than just safe places to sleep, housing programs are integrated with education, employment, and wellness supports to help youth achieve independence. Consistently, three out of four youth who complete our long-term housing programs exit homelessness. Larkin street is also the lead managing partner and fiscal agent for Rising Up (www.risingupsf.org), a public and private citywide partnership with the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSHh) and five other nonprofit organizations. A combination of public and private funds totaling $50M have been raised over the past four years to support this effort, approximately 80% of which will be regranted out to our partner organizations. The majority of Larkin Street's restricted dollars have been set aside to fulfill the financial obligations of the Rising Up campaign.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 68% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 87
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 22
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.3%; rating input score 87
- Program expense ratio: 79.1%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $17.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- 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: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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; 66th 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: -10.2%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.79; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.56; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.9%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 8 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 87.3% of revenue deployed · 79.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 23 of 23 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $29.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $291K · 34 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.2M reported
- Consistency: 37 of 37 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 10/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 53/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 52/100.