Upward Roots Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 452981640
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2016–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024
- Location
- Oakland, CA, USA
- Phone
- 5104884490
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $166,630
- Expenses
- $164,381
- Assets
- $212,484
- Liabilities
- $5,933
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
People named in this filing
- Elizabeth Knight (Executive Dir.)
- Anthony Rodriguez (Board Chair)
- Andrea Lynn (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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Upward Roots is a nonprofit organization that develops leadership and empowers youth through community service.
What it reported doing in 2024
Founded in 2010, Upward Roots engages youth in a dynamic curriculum based on education, leadership, and service learning, promoting the idea that each and every young person can be a positive changemaker within their community. By providing thesupport needed to successfully plan and execute community service projects of their own design, Upward Rootshelps young people develop into emerging leaders, while also improving self-confidence, academic progress, personal developmentand civic attitudes.In our programs, community service is a youth-led, experiential learning process, where youth identify needs that they are passionateabout and design service solutions to address those needs. When we let youth lead, positive change happens. UR partners withOakland Title 1 public elementary and middle schools where over 90% of URs changemakers are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Over the course of 10-12 afterschool sessions in a semester, participants engage in URs dynamic curriculum. The program is designed to provide the space and structure for participants to grow personally and act collectively to create positive change through planning and leading a community service project to address a need that they are passionate about impacting.
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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Expenses are high relative to revenue and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 42
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 73.2%; rating input score 73
- Program expense ratio: 74.2%; rating input score 74
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.3%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.29; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 57.2%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.3% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 73.2% of revenue deployed · 74.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $122K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 38/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 35/100.