Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 043031978
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Boston, MA, USA
- Phone
- 6174215500
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,464,232
- Expenses
- $2,059,109
- Assets
- $2,193,565
- Liabilities
- $535,373
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- KELLY LEBLANC (VICE PRESIDENT OF NUTRITION PROGRAMMING)
- ABIGAIL SLOANE (VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION)
Highest reported compensation
- SARA BAER-SINNOTT (PRES/CLERK/EXEC DIR): $246,128 total reported compensation
- ABIGAIL SLOANE (VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION): $140,402 total reported compensation
- KELLY LEBLANC (VICE PRESIDENT OF NUTRITION PROGRAMMING): $125,990 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Oldways is a nonprofit dedicated to improving public health by inspiring individuals and organizations to embrace the healthy, sustainable joys of the "old ways" of eating - heritage based diets high in taste, nourishment, sustainability, and joy. Oldways' mission is to help people live healthier, happier lives by offering educational programs, resources, and recipes based on cultural food traditions from around the world.
What it reported doing in 2024
All of oldways programs work toward the mission of inspiring people to embrace the healthy and sustainable joys of cultural food traditions, work that has been ahead of the curve for 33 years. The mediterranean diet program was oldways first program, as we introduced the health profile, foods and recipes of the mediterranean diet to a us audience, beginning in 1993. We have created a wide variety of resources to do this, including a 4-week menu of mediterranean dishes. Similar to the mediterranean program, we provide information and a number of resources about asian and latin american cultural models for healthy eating. Also, oldways has a curriculum to teach the traditional latin american diet a taste of latin american heritage. The plant forward plates program created a seven-day vegan menu (scaled to 25, 50, 75 and 100 portions) for hospitals and other institutions. The oldways cheese coalition is an oldways program with 25 members, designed to inspire people to embrace the joys of the old ways of eating traditional cheeses in healthy amounts, including newsletters, events and social media.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 94
- Sustainability: 51
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 73.1%; rating input score 73
- Program expense ratio: 86.8%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $97.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Missing
- 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: 68.8%; rating input score 69; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 90%; rating input score 90; 21st 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: 16.4%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.24; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 30.1%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -0.5% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 73.1% of revenue deployed · 86.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 10 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $246K · 13 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 34 of 35 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 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: 5 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: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.