Organizing Roots Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 872183308
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5622014494
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Educational Services and Schools - Other
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,469,188
- Expenses
- $1,608,738
- Assets
- $2,542,744
- Liabilities
- $56,927
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- TAMMY BANG LUU (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- TIA E MARTINEZ (CO-FOUNDER): $174,482 total reported compensation
- JACQUELYN JOHNSON (MANAGING PARTNE): $174,285 total reported compensation
- DANIEL KIM (CO-FOUNDER): $148,077 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Organizing Roots strengthens statewide organizations through leadership development, training, and capacity-building support. We provide coaching, strategy planning, and data resources that improve nonprofit infrastructure and sustainability.
What it reported doing in 2024
Education Equity: Facilitated strategy planning, implementation support, training, and data analysis for a regional coalition in Californias Central Valley. Activities included a week-long training on the core practices of community leadership and a year-long process to assist a statewide coalition in leadership transition planning. We also launched monthly professional learning sessions for staff across member organizations.Foundation Support: Partnered with program leadership in a large foundation to align strategy across multiple teams and improve long-term support for statewide organizations.Community Well-Being: Provided backbone support to a coalition of organizations focused on improving outcomes for girls involved in juvenile justice and child welfare systems. This included convening partners, coaching, training, and collaborative strategy development.Data & Technology TrainingWe trained cohorts in data analysis tools, including Tableau, Excel, and SPSS, with a focus on supporting a diverse range of community leaders.Organizational Development & Learning CohortsWe designed and facilitated experiential learning programs for youth and community leaders in Oakland, and supported new organizations in the Central Valley with training in nonprofit management, including finance, HR, labor law, tax compliance, strategy, and communications.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 71% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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 total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 65
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 67
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 52.2%; rating input score 52
- Program expense ratio: 79.8%; rating input score 80
- Fundraising efficiency: $68.26 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- 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: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 34.8%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.58; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 30.9%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 83.1% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 20.2% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 22.2% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 52.2% of revenue deployed · 79.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $174K · 6 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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.
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 52/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 54/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.