Unity Schools
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 753107384
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Oakland, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5106357170
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Secondary, High School
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $10,015,758
- Expenses
- $9,622,560
- Assets
- $9,474,741
- Liabilities
- $2,941,732
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SAU-LIM LANCE TSANG (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- WILLIAM NEE (PRINCIPAL, HS): $190,055 total reported compensation
- KATE GOEDEKER (CO-PRINCIPAL, MS): $154,813 total reported compensation
- DAMON GRANT (CO-PRINCIPAL, MS): $152,505 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 prepare its students for admission to and success in college and career, and to become happy and productive members of society.
What it reported doing in 2024
Operation of oakland unity high school (ouhs): a public charter school sponsored by oakland unified school district offering educational services to students in grades 9 to 12. All students are offered a curriculum that allows every graduate to meet the university of California a-grequirements. Students are assigned advisors from the teaching staff who serve as student and family advocates and mentor students towards graduation and college admission. Learning experiences both within and outside the classroom allow students to achieve their leadership and academic potential and become creative critical thinkers, compassionate human beings, and effective participants in multicultural democratic society.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 99% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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
SUPPORTED - 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 79
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 42
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 89%; rating input score 89
- Program expense ratio: 92.6%; rating input score 93
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th 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: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 3.9%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.98; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.31; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.7%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1.1% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 89% of revenue deployed · 92.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $8.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $190K · 12 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $663K reported
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 6 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 36/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.