South End Stories

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
992175972
IRS 990 coverage
2024–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
2063007401
Rating
59
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Educational Services and Schools - Other

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$253,374
Expenses
$141,494
Assets
$116,218
Liabilities
$5,328

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DR SARAH TOV (President)
  • EMILY JO TESTA (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • JESS PENA MANALO (Executive Dir.): $10,332 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

South end Stories is a trauma-conscious arts education organization bringing liberation through storytelling and the arts to youth. We support students to experience healing through creativity, history, and community. Through our programs, arts become an essential tool for creative, collaborative, communicative, critical learning. We create safe, healing spaces for Seattle students who are the furthest from educational justice. Each year, we work with 500+ students in grades K-12. We prioritize working with BIPOC students, students with disabilities, and those experiencing housing instability. Our impact extends beyond the classroom through our work with educators, parents, and families.

What it reported doing in 2024

South End Stories transitioned from being fiscally sponsored to operating as an independent 501c3 nonprofit organization. This marks an important milestone in our growth and has allowed us to see where we need to improve to ensure we canalign our internal staffing policies with our values around community, justice, and antiracism. We are committed to ensuring sustainability in the long-term by maintaining the relationships we have with our current partners as well asstrengthening our programmatic offerings to the community.Caregivers at Meany Middle School shared their enthusiasm for South End Stories' programming at their school, highlighting the positive impact it has had on their students' level of engagement. Students were excited about participating in our Stage Club and look forward to it every week! We've received feedback that indicates youth are interested in learning the following skills in our programs: leadership, expressing their ideas through art, and collaborating with their peers. Other feedback we've received is how much support students need with interpersonalconflict. This is data from our pre-assessment which allows us to construct a curriculum that meets the needs of the youth asking for this support.South End Stories Creative Warrior program brought BBIA teaching artists into Rainier Beach HS to collaborate with youth on experiential art projects. Youth received creative, inspiring instruction and engage in the full artistic process, building skills and confidence through a shared creative journey with professional artists.Our teaching artist, Stefan Richmond, won the Constance W. Rice Fellowship, a collaboration with South End Stories and Seattle Art Museum, which allowed Stefan to create their own original artwork alongside their students in our Professional Artist Residency program at Franklin High School. Stefan created a performance and series of meditative audio-guide stops for the Olympic Sculpture Park working with Franklin High School students.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 65% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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 revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 41
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 58
  • Sustainability: 60
  • Growth: NotEnoughData

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 31%; rating input score 31
  • Program expense ratio: 55.4%; rating input score 55
  • Fundraising efficiency: $16.16 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 52; 52nd 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: 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 44.2%; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.82; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.3%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: Limited
  • Asset growth: Limited

Details

  • Where the money goes: 31% of revenue deployed · 55.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 0 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $78K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $10K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 21 of 21 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 31/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 7 of 7 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 55/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 52/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.