Splash International

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
562600599
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
2065357375
Rating
67
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Water Resource, Wetlands Conservation and Management

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,772,077
Expenses
$5,687,342
Assets
$4,907,435
Liabilities
$536,221

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

Leadership & pay

20 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Eric Stowe (Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

Highest reported compensation

  • Eric Stowe (Founder and Chief Executive Officer): $276,342 total reported compensation
  • Anna L Mitchell (Chief Finance and Administration Officer): $202,366 total reported compensation
  • Katrina Straker (Chief Development Officer): $189,460 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The mission of Splash International and its subsidiaries is to ensure clean water for children. Splash partners with governments and local organizations to deliver sustainable water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health programs in public schools in large, low resource cities in Africa and Asia. Through its Project WISE (WASH in Schools for Everyone) program, Splash integrates infrastructure improvements, behavior change programming, and strengthened menstrual health support to ensure that children can learn in safe, healthy, and dignified school environments. In its current strategic phase, Splash emphasizes systems level change by supporting government planning, financing, and implementation capacity so that services are sustained and expanded over time. Since 2007, Splash has completed more than 2,500 projects across multiple countries in Asia and Africa, reaching over 1.2 million children with improved WASH services.

What it reported doing in 2025

Splash's work in Sub-Saharan Africa is centered on Project WISE Phase II, a multi country, citywide initiative designed to demonstrate that sustainable, government led WASH services can reach every public school in a city. Phase II builds on earlier implementation by transitioning from direct service delivery to a model that works through government systems and local implementing partners to achieve broader scale and long term sustainability. Ethiopia remains Splash's largest country program. Rapid urban growth in cities such as Addis Ababa continues to strain water and sanitation services, particularly in public schools. By the end of 2025, Splash had served more than 845,000 children across multiple Ethiopian cities, including Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar. Phase II expands this work by strengthening government ownership, embedding standards and monitoring systems, and ensuring that operations and maintenance are financed and managed locally over time. Splash is also expanding into additional countries in East and Southern Africa, including Zambia and Malawi. Across these countries, Splash is implementing a citywide approach that aims to reach all public schools in target cities with integrated WASH and menstrual health services, while supporting governments to plan, finance, and sustain these services independently.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 65
  • Transparency & Controls: 57
  • Accountability: 89
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 70.3%; rating input score 70
  • Program expense ratio: 71.2%; rating input score 71
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.01 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 1.5%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.86; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 27.6%; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.4% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.1% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 70.3% of revenue deployed · 71.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $276K · 20 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $405K reported
  • Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 19/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 32/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 9/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.