Veterans on The Rise Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
550772433
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2009, Form 990-N 2008
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2023884090
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alcohol, Drug and Substance Abuse, Dependency Prevention and Treatment

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,855,944
Expenses
$3,082,917
Assets
$3,971,830
Liabilities
$1,229,337

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • David Kurtz (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • David Kurtz (Executive Director): $122,163 total reported compensation
  • Ruby Gregory (Deputy Director): $117,797 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Veterans on the Rise provides a holistic system of care to fight veteran homelessness in the Washington DC metroplex. VOTR offers the resources and opportunities for each homeless or at-risk veteran to overcome the personal and housing challenges they face in order to achieve maximum self-sufficiency.

What it reported doing in 2025

Serious Mentally Ill Transitional Housing (SMI): VOTR has 12 beds dedicated to housing veterans experiencing severe mental illness which puts them at the highest risk of homelessness. Many of these veterans have multiple conditions that make it hard for them to succeed in shelters or in traditional transitional housing programs. These conditions can include, but are not limited to, severe mental illness, co-occurring disorders, PTSD, substance abuse and other medical conditions. These veterans live in a community setting in which they receive 24-hour care from trained specialists for up to 180 days. Care includes physical and mental health support through the VA Medical Center, therapeutic and rehabilitative services, individual professional counseling, training in life skills and financial management, and help in finding alternative safe and affordable housing when they are discharged from VOTR. 81 veterans were supported by this program during 2024 and 2025.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 97% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filed totals do not add up and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 54
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.8%; rating input score 70
  • Program expense ratio: 86.4%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 14th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: 20%; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.29; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.31; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.8%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.8% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 19.7% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.8% of revenue deployed · 86.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $2.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $122K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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.
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: CEO compensation review process not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 43/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 26/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 41/100.