Palo Alto Forward
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 371844383
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2021–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2017
- Location
- Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Rating
- 92
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Community, Neighborhood Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $105,442
- Expenses
- $92,847
- Assets
- $193,495
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
People named in this filing
- Sheryl Klein (Board Chair)
- Natalie Guise (Board Vice Chair)
- Reid Kleckner (Board 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-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our Mission is to innovate and expand housing and transportation choices for a more inclusive affordable and environmentally sustainable Palo Alto by working with residents and city government. We host educational events conduct original research on local housing and transportation-related issues and serve as a voice to our elected officials and city staff.
What it reported doing in 2024
We engaged in an educational campaign to stress the importance of adding housing for all income groups in Palo Alto. The activities included a kickoff event coffees tabling at Farmers markets in Palo Alto and a digital media campaign. We engaged a consultant to design the campaign and digital media outreach and contributed our Executive Director and Community Builder to the activities. We had an event at City Hall to communicate our findings. We have directly engaged several hundred residents in our community and hope our advocacy will benefit the many residents seeking more affordable housing.
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 90% 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. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and assets have declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 93
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 88.7%; rating input score 89
- Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 11.9%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.08; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 25.5% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -5.2% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -3.7% per year; rating input score 0; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 88.7% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $93K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.