Transparent Collective INC

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
813600717
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2020
Location
Oakland, CA, USA
Phone
5104101542
Rating
89
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$77,187
Expenses
$100,479
Assets
$5,362
Liabilities
$3,210

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

Leadership & pay

2 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • James H Norman (President & CEO)

People named in this filing

  • James H Norman (President & CEO)
  • Rohini H Pandhi (CFO)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

Increasing the number of underrepresented founders raising early stage funding

What it reported doing in 2025

Transparent Collective is a group of diverse operators increasing the number of Black, Latinx, and womxn entrepreneurs succeeding in venture backed tech. Based on our experiences, we provide a hyper-personalized playbook that enables founders to access capital, connections, and community. Currently, less than 1 of venture capital is invested in Black and Latinx founders. Within the Transparent Collective community, over 80 of our founders were able to successfully raise funding. We've worked with over 60 companies to help them raise almost $70m collectively from top-tier investors. We offer intensive programming focused on helping early stage companies raise Seed and Series A with 1-on-1 advisor sessions, panels with industry leaders, and opportunities to network with active investors. Learn more at transparentcollective.com.

Operating model

Revenue model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
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. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and revenue has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 96
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 18
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 89.6%; rating input score 90

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -30.2%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.05; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.6; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -10% per year; rating input score 0; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -12.8% per year; rating input score 0; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -26% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 89.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $90K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 2 people listed
  • Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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 — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 10/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.