The Unforgotten

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
870803021
IRS 990 coverage
2012–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2010
Location
Ellicott City, MD, USA
Phone
4436682648
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Service Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$128,832
Expenses
$119,813
Assets
$199,079
Liabilities
$2,050

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

Leadership & pay

18 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Amit Kapadia (President-Executive Director)

People named in this filing

  • Amit Kapadia (President-Executive Director)
  • Audrey Day (Director)
  • Rame Hemstreet (Director)

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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Unforgotten has been operational since 2007, and has completed hunger relief, water, medical, and education projects around the world, and to this day remains managed by volunteers in the US, so all donations can be directed to where it is needed most - to provide humanitarian relief in the field. To this date, The Unforgotten remains one of the only charities in the world providing aid to vulnerable women and children surviving as wastepickers in developing countries.

What it reported doing in 2025

Supporting primary schooling of child wastepickers in Zambia, Yemen, Djibouti, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, India. Throughout 2024, The Unforgotten provided financial support to 60 children in Lusaka, Zambia, 5 in Sanaa, Yemen, 19 in Djibouti City, Djibouti, 21 in Kathmandu, Nepal, 45 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, 20 in Dhaka, Bangladesh and 20 in Jaipur, India. Paid for school fees, supplies, transportation, meals, scholarships, lodging, tutoring, uniforms, shoes. These children were previously not attending school and instead were living in/around landfills, looking through the waste for food to eat and items to sell, earning about 50 cents per day. The Unforgotten enrolled these former wastepickers in school. As of December 2025, our aid to these children has been very successful. All of the children are progressing through school and their academic performance has been commendable. The children have not returned to wastepicking in order to eat and earn a few cents, but have instead focused on their studies. Their guardians have been very supportive of the children's education and grateful for the aid.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 100% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 63
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 52
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 88.3%; rating input score 88
  • Program expense ratio: 94.7%; rating input score 95
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Pass
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 55%; rating input score 55; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • 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: 7%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.66; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 88.3% of revenue deployed · 94.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 18 of 18 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $113K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 18 people listed
  • Consistency: 42 of 43 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes foreign activity
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2012 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 55/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 51/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 54/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.