Louis Groceries NFP

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
452910188
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2015–2016
Forms available
Form 990 2014, Form 990-EZ 2016
Location
Rancho Sante Fe, CA, USA
Phone
7736556517
Rating confidence
Limited
Sector
Research Institutes and Public Policy Analysis

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$-16,078
Expenses
$21,569
Assets
$0

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2016. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Kristy Kitzmiller (Executive Dir.)
  • Teresa Zhu (Secretary)
  • Christopher R Jarosz (Director)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2016. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The main goal of Louis' Groceries is to conduct research to support the public good. The subject of our organization's research is the food desert problem. Accurate data is vital to drive productive research to solve this complex problem and to those ends, Louis' Groceries operated a lab that sold fresh produce within an identified food desert to collect this integral data. With the data collected from this research and subsequent analysis, Louis Groceries' will propose solutions for specific issues that the research identifies. By gathering data and assessing demand, the organization was able to conduct research, using behavioral economics and social science, to discover interventions to improve health-related behaviors. By operating a lab in the form of a product-specific grocery store to obtain data for Louis' Groceries' research, our intent was to conduct behavioral economic experiments in order to determine the most effective ways to incentivize the actual consumption of newly ava

What it reported doing in 2016

Louis' Groceries provided grocery options in an area which is historically a food desert. Louis' Groceries strove to provide nutritional food options to low income areas where few options existed.The data collected from operating the grocery store was used in the following publications and presentations: The organization advised social enterprises (e.g., Neighbor Capital, Nothing Beets You) on business considerations of grocery retail in "food deserts." With academic collaborators, the organization submitted a research paper to the American Economic Journal with results of a field experiment conducted at our pilot grocery store.

Operating model

Revenue model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 38
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 9
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: Limited
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -234.2%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -142.7% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -55.2% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -53.3% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $35K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 4 of 5 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2015 to 2016
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III program expenses within total did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.