The Archie & Phebe Mae Givens Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 237338158
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- St Louis Park, MN, USA
- Phone
- 6122728491
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Cultural, Ethnic Awareness
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $95,623
- Expenses
- $107,919
- Assets
- $61,538
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Roxanne Marie Givens (President)
People named in this filing
- Charles Schafer (Secretary)
- Stanley Jackson (Vice Chair)
- Jerry Wilson (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Givens Foundation is dedicated to entriching cultural understanding and learning through programs that advance and celebrate African American literature and writers.
What it reported doing in 2024
Black Market Reads-The Givens Foundation's programs are committed to being an innovative solution that supports the mission and goals of providing high quality arts programming in support of Minnesota's cultural goals and objective for its citizens and to showcase Minnesota Black literary talent regionally, nationally, and internationally. The Foundation uses African American Literature as a vehicle to accomplish these goals. Our Black Market Reads podcast program features local, regional, and nationally acclaimed Black authors in authors in discussion about the importance of Black literature in their careers. The program showcases the diversity of Black American literature in MN and throughout the U.S. The podcast allows the public to also experience and interact with these authors through our diverse group of partners. Our Culture Matters Writing Workshop initiative designed to offer culturally responsive, community-based writing workshops, using African American Literary Teaching Artists, and literature by African American authors launched its program for residents at the Hennepin County Home School for youthful offenders.
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
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 81
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 41
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 94.4%; rating input score 94
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -12.9%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.57; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -10.1% per year; rating input score 0; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -13.8% per year; rating input score 0; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -8.7% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 94.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 4 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $102K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 18 of 19 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Independent members within voting members did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 44/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.