Pillows with Wings Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
825294419
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2017
Location
Waukesha, WI, USA
Phone
2626913200
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Children's, Youth Services

Reported finances

Revenue
$263,829
Expenses
$452,827
Assets
$128,555
Liabilities
$63,263

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KAREN ELLENBECKER (PRESIDENT)
  • CAROL FLANARY (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • MARTHA PUTNAM (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • MARTHA PUTNAM (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $58,893 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To foster social and emotional wellbeing, empowering individuals and enriching communities. We believe that education extends beyond the classroom to support holistic personal growth. Our learning platform drives social and emotional change globally, one transformed life and nurtured community at a time. Through faithforward content, we aim to inspire compassion, empathy, and resilience, sparking a ripple effect of positive change.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025, pillows with wings expanded its presence across 15 urban parochial schools, bringing emotional resilience tools to students and educators who are often on the front lines without adequate mental health resources.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 67% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 63
  • Sustainability: 10
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 65.4%; rating input score 65
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.06 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -71.6%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.28; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.49; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 13%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 21.3% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 31.1% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 40.8% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 65.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 1 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $296K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $59K · 10 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 3/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 16/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 9/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.