The Urban Outreach Center

Legal name: The Urban Outreach Center of New York City Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
820642308
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2018
Location
New York, NY, United States
Phone
(212) 288-6743
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Community Coalitions

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$333,938
Expenses
$293,303
Assets
$484,456
Liabilities
$31,631

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • The Rev Dr Jordan Tarwater (Executive Director and Secretary)

Highest reported compensation

  • The Rev Dr Jordan Tarwater (Executive Director and Secretary): $108,467 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To end the hunger gap in East Harlem and the Upper East Side by providing healthy food with dignity to vulnerable New Yorkers.

What it reported doing in 2024

Food Pantry Program: Food and Screening - The food pantry provides a nutritious variety of goods, including fresh produce suited to guests needs. This program services over 1000 families each month. Guests are also screened for food stamps during the food pantry in-take process. The food program also offers nutrition education to the in-take guests, helping them learn how to prepare simple nutritious meals using canned and fresh fruits and vegetables available in the Food Pantry. The program also offers daily distribution of pastries, sandwiches, bread and fruit to its guests. Weekly Dinner Program - Each Tuesday evening a carefully planned meal is prepared to provide a balanced diet, including at least three of the five daily vegetable portions recommended, to as many as 200 men, women and children; and on average 170 guests. Farmers Market Style Food Pantry Program and Community Dinner - Our two food programs - our Farmers Market Style Food Pantry and Community Dinner - supply over 2,000,000 annual meals worth of food to homeless and low-income New Yorkers, including an increased number of senior citizens and asylum-seeking neighbors. As we build toward our vision of ending the hunger gap in East Harlem and the Upper East Side, in 2022, we will launch 5 Mobile Pantry Partner food pantry sites across East Harlem, expanding our impact and bringing our model of hospitality and dignity- centered access to fresh fruits and vegetables to more NYC families.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 86% 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

STRONG - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 70
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 53
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 64.2%; rating input score 64
  • Program expense ratio: 72.4%; rating input score 72
  • Fundraising efficiency: $242.07 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 92; 92nd 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 12.2%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.65; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.4%; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.3% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 22.9% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
  • Where the money goes: 64.2% of revenue deployed · 72.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $212K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $108K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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: 3 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 54/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 30/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 30/100.