Underground Writing

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
832570377
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
Location
Mount Vernon, WA, USA
Phone
3602200467
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Nonmonetary Support N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$77,437
Expenses
$93,260
Assets
$64,502
Liabilities
$13,888

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MATT MALYON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PRESIDE)
  • ARMANDO RUIZ (VICE PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • MATT MALYON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PRESIDE)
  • ARMANDO RUIZ (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • JENNIFER PITNER (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-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Underground writing is a literature-based creative writing program serving migrant, incarcerated, recovery, and other at-need communities in Washington through literacy and personal transformation. Our mission is unlocking creativity through writing workshops and voice amplification for at-need and underrepresented students, to assist in the restoration of communities, the imagination, and individual lives.

What it reported doing in 2025

Writing workshops - at the heart of our organization, our creative writing workshops for youth and adults from underrepresented and at-risk contexts. Taught by working writers, our workshops facilitate writing inspired by, and response to, readings from the whole of literacy tradition.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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. Revenue has declined or grown slowly and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 90
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 22
  • Growth: 40

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 96.3%; rating input score 96
  • Program expense ratio: 80%; rating input score 80

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: -20.4%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.69; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 77.6%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.8% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -17.9% per year; rating input score 0; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -6.6% per year; rating input score 0; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 96.3% of revenue deployed · 80% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $75K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 21/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 11/100.