The Mosaic Project
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 943367263
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Oakland, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5104523377
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Specialized Education Institutions
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,412,264
- Expenses
- $1,480,665
- Assets
- $2,751,657
- Liabilities
- $83,434
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
20 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Kara Murray-Badal (President)
Highest reported compensation
- LARA MENDEL (Executive Dir.): $80,800 total reported compensation
- Brian Lowe (COO): $77,201 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
We work toward a peaceful future by uniting children of diverse backgrounds, providing them with essential community building skills, and empowering them to become peacemakers. Our complementary work with youth and adults not only supports our youngest peacemakers, but also enables us to reach wider communities throughschools, community-based organizations, and the workplace.together, we create microcosms of the just, diverse, inclusive world we envision, demonstrate that peace is possible, and inspire action.
What it reported doing in 2024
The outdoor school: while typical outdoor schools focus on environmental science, ours addresses issues of difference and builds self-esteem and community. Our students never forget this inspiring learning experience. We reach them before negative attitudes surrounding difference become entrenched and we enable them to live with, learn from, and befriend others with whom they would not ordinarily interact. Together in a beautiful, natural setting, they begin to recognize their commonalities and gain respect and appreciation for the uniqueness of all individuals, including themselves. They are encouraged to overcome ignoranceand insecurities which can lead to fear of difference, prejudice, discrimination, hatred, and violence. We provide our students with the profound, personal experience of building an inclusive, egalitarian community across race, culture, and class barriers, inspiring and empowering them to create such communities throughout theirlives. The partner teachers institute turns the outdoor school into a professional development retreat for our partner teachers. We provide workshops each day to give them the opportunity to engage more deeply with the themes, music, and memorable mosaic moments their students experience and to help them to reinforce mosaiclessons back in their classrooms. We build a support network among our partner teachers through which they can exchange ideas and plan joint projects throughout the school year. Post pandemic, 2024 was the first year we were able to run a full 12 spring and fall sessions of the outdoor school camps and student attendance for each session approached pre-pandemic levels. Most partner schools needed a second visit post-pandemic to re-establish their own outdoor school admin processes and communications and ultimate participation levels in the program.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 68% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 40
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 85.4%; rating input score 85
- Program expense ratio: 81%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -4.8%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.86; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.7%; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 20.2% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 85.4% of revenue deployed · 81% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 19 of 19 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $81K · 20 people listed
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 27/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 35/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 58/100.