San Quentin Skunk Works
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 883852173
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2024
- Location
- San Quentin, CA, USA
- Rating
- 62
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Civil Rights
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $125,991
- Expenses
- $52,825
- Assets
- $74,153
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Kyle Winchell (Executive Director)
- Jessie Harney (Board President)
People named in this filing
- Kyle Winchell (Executive Director)
- Jessie Harney (Board President)
- Elizabeth Kircher (Board Member)
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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
San Quentin SkunkWorks unites the ingenuity and leadership of incarcerated people and professionals to transform the criminal justice system from the inside out. The organization develops tests and scales educational rehabilitative and community-based programs that improve outcomes for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people correctional staff and the communities impacted by incarceration. Through collaborative innovation and leadership development the organization works to advance transformative change within Californias penal system and beyond.
What it reported doing in 2025
Through our Transformative Recreation program organized and ran monthly table-top gaming events alongside a chess club that meets weekly inside of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Our table-top gaming events which we call First Friday events serve roughly 150 incarcerated persons and roughly thirty correctional staff at San Quentin each month. In sum this totaled reaching 800 unique participants from the incarcerated population in the program with the total number of participants being estimated at roughly 900. Additionally this program provides drinks and refreshments for each of its participants such that each person was able to eat a real non-prison-food meal each event. We also brought in nearly 60 outside community members to participate in these events. With regard to the chess club San Quentin SkunkWorks now runs a chess club with volunteer grandmaster level coaching that serves roughly 25 regular attendees. This club has just recently received FIDE recognition and is working towards hosting a tournament between outside chess players and club members.
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 89% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. 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: 38
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 67
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 24.6%; rating input score 25
- Program expense ratio: 58.6%; rating input score 59
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: 58.1%; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.4; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.6%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 24.6% of revenue deployed · 58.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $31K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 25/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 59/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 23/100.