Senior Stewards Acting for the Environment
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 871229514
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- Villa Park, IL, USA
- Phone
- 6032770073
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Senior Centers
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $189,179
- Expenses
- $193,523
- Assets
- $142,992
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
21 people listed
People named in this filing
- Joel Brody (Director and Chair)
- Jim Seif (Director and Vice-Chair)
- Liz Barbehenn (Director and 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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To address the climate crisis with the urgency it requires, SSAFE chapters educate and partner with their committees and administrations, with other chapters, and with other senior living communities to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through: advancing clean energy (energy-efficient and electrified buildings and vehicles); promoting sustainable food systems, reducing and recycling waste, and protecting biodiversity (native plants and wildlife); and advocating for local, state, and federal programs that repair, protect, and conserve the ecosystems without which life on earth cannot flourish.
What it reported doing in 2025
Cross-Chapter Collaboration and Peer Learning SSAFE expanded collaboration among member communities through its Greening Our Campuses program, workgroups, and peer learning initiatives. In 2025, SSAFE developed and shared 10 new case studies highlighting successful sustainability projects. SSAFE also introduced administrative panel discussions to foster collaboration between residents and management, and launched two new workgroups focused on reducing waste and sustainable eating. These efforts supported knowledge sharing and practical climate action across communities.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 98% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 35
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 85.4%; rating input score 85
- Program expense ratio: 83.2%; rating input score 83
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: -2.3%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.74; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 79.8%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 46.3% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 24.5% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 26.2% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 85.4% of revenue deployed · 83.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 6 filed program accomplishments · $161K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 21 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.