Rooted Wisdom Africa
Legal name: Rooted Wisdom Africa Into Your Hands
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 208595073
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020
- Location
- Denver, CO, USA
- Phone
- 1-720-491-1901
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- International Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $107,345
- Expenses
- $104,696
- Assets
- $263,345
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Kristine Hitchings (Executive Dir.): $37,500 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our mission is to empower children and families in rural Uganda to rise above the constraints of poverty through education and business development.
What it reported doing in 2025
Entrepreneurship: Rooted Wisdom Africa invests in families, students, farmers, and community members through entrepreneurial training programs to support income generation and self-sufficiency. These programs support disadvantaged populations as they learn valuable business skills and vocational training in an effort to increase their income, food security, and scalable businesses. The Women's Enterprise Training Program (WETP) equips women and girls living in extreme poverty with the skills necessary to secure independent and sustainable employment. In 2025, WETP supported over 30 Ugandan women and out-of-school youth. The Farmer Field School (FFS) supports current or aspiring farmers by teaching hands-on environmentally sustainable agricultural techniques using a cost-effective approach. In 2025, 125 farmers were supported through the program. In total, $13,159 was spent in support of the organizations enterprise and community engagement initiatives.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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 available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 55
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 49
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.3%; rating input score 79
- Program expense ratio: 81.3%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $11.91 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
- 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2.5%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.52; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 35.8%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -0.1% per year; rating input score 0; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 0.7% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13.3% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 79.3% of revenue deployed · 81.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $85K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $38K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 15 of 15 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2013 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 42/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.