Place Initiative
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 933073005
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2023–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024
- Location
- Portland, OR, USA
- Phone
- 5039369873
- Rating
- 47
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Alliance/Advocacy Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $76,438
- Expenses
- $103,557
- Assets
- $23,237
- Liabilities
- $453
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Garlynn Woodsong (Executive Director)
People named in this filing
- Camille Cortes (Board Chair)
- Matt Lambert (Treasurer)
- Tanya Paglia (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
Proactive Leadership Advocating for Climate and Equity (PLACE) Initiative works for climate action with equitable outcomes, to achieve people-centric solutions to the climate-driven challenges of our future.
What it reported doing in 2024
In 2024, PLACE Initiative continued advancing equitable climate action by supporting community-driven planning and policy innovation. We provided direct technical assistance to four rural Appalachian towns through the Appalachian Regional Commission-funded "What's Next East Kentucky?!" initiative, guiding local leaders and residents through the PLACE Assessment process to identify opportunities for climate resilience, economic revitalization, and housing security. PLACE co-hosted the Transportation, Mobility, and the Public Realm Urban Thinkers Campus as part of the Place Summit in Bentonville, Arkansas, in partnership with ULI NWA, convening over 150 professionals, advocates, and community members. Participants developed actionable strategies to shift transportation investment toward walkable, people-centered systems aligned with climate, equity, and fiscal responsibility goals. Through our Climate-Ready Corridors campaign, we collaborated with local and regional partners to promote infill development, cooperative housing models, and climate-adaptive infrastructure along key corridors in Portland, Oregon and beyond. PLACE supported policy research and public engagement around equitable urban growth, scenario planning tools, and disaster response hubs, including tactical neighborhood hub pilot designs. PLACE also contributed to national thought leadership through participation in the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign, CNU Cascadia, and multiple webinars and publications, reaching over 5,000 individuals through digital and in-person programming in 2024.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 96% 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
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 26
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 16
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 28.8%; rating input score 29
- Program expense ratio: 21.3%; rating input score 21
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -35.5%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.22; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 59.7%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -64.7% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -19.5% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -72.9% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 28.8% of revenue deployed · 21.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $22K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2023 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 29/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 21/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 16/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.