Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
274379516
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2023, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Cupertino, CA, USA
Phone
4086450168
Rating
49
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Pollution Abatement and Control Services

Reported finances

Revenue
$245,334
Expenses
$399,076
Assets
$28,195
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • VANESSA SHIN (PRESIDENT)
  • KAUSHIK TOTA (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • ZEKUN LI (ED): $103,388 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

SVYCA empowers teens and young adults to combat climate change immediately through impactful education and policy initiatives. Our youth work in focused climate action teams to ensure important climate policies and measures receive support at every level, including local, regional, and statewide. Youth at SVYCA gain in-depth knowledge about climate policy, build relationships with key climate stakeholders such as elected officials and climate tech leaders, and gain exposure to climate career pathways across multiple industries and disciplines.

What it reported doing in 2025

The purpose of the Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action 2025 Youth Leadership Summit is to unite youth behind learning about and taking actions to combat climate change while building collective resiliency and awareness around sustainability. This summit invites high school and college students, as well as young adults to a day of interactive workshops as well as informative speaker programs that stretch across a vast array of urgent environmental topics, such as fast fashion, green career paths, climate science, and effective climate and sustainability solutions etc. Through the Youth Leadership Summit, youth in Silicon Valley will become empowered, learn about best practices, and develop skills to efficiently and effectively bring positive environmental change to their communities.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% 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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. 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: 19
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 63
  • Sustainability: 14
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 23.2%; rating input score 23
  • Program expense ratio: 14.2%; rating input score 14
  • Fundraising efficiency: $2.78 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • 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: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Missing
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -62.7%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.07; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 25.9%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -120.7% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 5.8% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 23.2% of revenue deployed · 14.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 1 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $57K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $103K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
  • 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 23/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 12/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 3/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.