Sankofa Roots

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
874164125
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025
Location
Oakland, CA, USA
Rating
83
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Environmental Education and Outdoor Survival Programs

Reported finances

Revenue
$86,683
Expenses
$74,327
Assets
$34,109

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

Leadership & pay

2 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Jamani Ashe (Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • Jamani Ashe (Executive Director)
  • Gabby Abebe (Manager of Programs and Operations)

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

Sankofa Roots prepares frontline communities for climate resilience through emergency preparedness training ancestral ecological knowledge reclamation and career pathways into first responder and environmental leadership fields.

What it reported doing in 2025

Sankofa Roots funded professional certifications in land management and wilderness medicine for staff and community members creating career pathways into first responder and environmental leadership fields. Certifications obtained include Wilderness First Responder WFR and Wildland Firefighter credentials. This program advances Sankofa Roots mission by building a pipeline of credentialed practitioners from frontline communities.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 61% 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

STRONG - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 41
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 73%; rating input score 73
  • Program expense ratio: 85.1%; rating input score 85

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 14.3%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.46; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21.5%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -11.8% per year; rating input score 0; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -9.5% per year; rating input score 0; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 73% of revenue deployed · 85.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $63K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 2 people listed
  • Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.