Los Angeles Urban Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 953888111
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Phone
- (213) 536.5265
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $797,672
- Expenses
- $692,399
- Assets
- $1,955,013
- Liabilities
- $19,599
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- ANNE HAWTHORNE (PRES & EXEC DIR): $64,774 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of the Los Angeles Urban Foundation is to initiate and support signs of hope in the city by empowering people – through social justice, economic development, education equity, and community well-being. In 1983, as a "gift to the city" First United Methodist Church of Los Angeles founded the Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation. Over the years it has supported faith- and community-based programs throughout the region. In 2009, the foundation began providing direct services at Kid City: youth leadership, academic enrichment, and college access for low-income youth near its downtown office. More recently, it incubated the Museum of Social Justice, which now has its own non-profit status. Revenue comes from a small endowment, individual donors, special events, private foundations, and the generosity of the United Methodist Church. | VISION | LEADERSHIP | | --- | --- |.
What it reported doing in 2024
Building youth leadership - kid city is a year-round, youth leadership and development, college access and success program established in the fall of 2008. Program priorities are college access and success, job and college readiness, and campus and community leadership. In 2025, kid city had over 450 students in college, about 100 high school students, and in addition, served siblings and family members of participating students. College support, mentoring for college admissions, tutoring, and music lessons are offered after-school. Summer and winter break programs include leadership, music, dance, band, job training, etc. Kid city engages parents and families to support first generation, college-going youth from low income families, in neighborhoods in central and south los angeles.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 75% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 98% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 82
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 92.7%; rating input score 93
- Program expense ratio: 90.1%; rating input score 90
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 13.2%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.82; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.4%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.5% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 92.7% of revenue deployed · 90.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 13 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $624K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $65K · 13 people listed
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: Audit committee oversight not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 39/100.