Nuestra Casa De East Palo Alto
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 464040538
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- East Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Rating
- 71
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Centers to Support the Independence of Specific Populations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,693,656
- Expenses
- $1,745,616
- Assets
- $2,793,712
- Liabilities
- $76,709
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Juan Mendez (President)
- Diana Luis (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Juan Mendez (President)
- Diana Luis (Vice President)
- Rigo Rosas (Secretary)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Nuestra Casa exists to uplift Latino families in East Palo Alto and the mid-peninsula through community education, leadership and advocacy
What it reported doing in 2024
Red comunitaria program - our red comunitaria program trains, supports, and coaches local women to take ownership of their neighborhood and become promotoras (community outreach workers). These passionate leaders are parents and trusted messengers in our community who care deeply about justice and equity. They organize neighbors, facilitate workshops, and guide our programmatic priorities. We regularly train promotoras to build upon their leadership, advocacy, outreach skills, and knowledge of community resources and initiatives. Our promotora program is a core component of the libre project, a collaborative that plays a pivotal role in helping our immigrant community understand and navigate an array of safety net services. As the first point of contact for thousands of local immigrant families, our promotoras educate families with questions about benefits. They connect individuals to a nuestra casa assistor or one of our partners for legal assistance or aid in applying for benefits.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 80% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 97% 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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 66
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 47
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70.6%; rating input score 71
- Program expense ratio: 67.6%; rating input score 68
- Fundraising efficiency: $8.32 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 39.8%; rating input score 40; 27th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3.1%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.6; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 16% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 15.8% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 27.6% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 70.6% of revenue deployed · 67.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 32 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 40/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 32/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 28/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 59/100.