Victory Starts Now
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 473372077
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2023
- Forms available
- Form 990 2023, Form 990-EZ 2016
- Location
- Pasadena, CA, USA
- Phone
- 3233051963
- Rating
- 66
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Urban, Community Economic Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $23,440,715
- Expenses
- $23,888,004
- Assets
- $4,413,151
- Liabilities
- $4,413,151
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Viktoriya Stinson (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Viktoriya Stinson (Executive Director): $184,111 total reported compensation
- Zarina Kang (Clinician): $106,197 total reported compensation
- Sonny Ramirez Estrada (Clinician): $105,613 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Victory Starts Nows mission is to combat community deterioration by providing housing, food, supplies, outreach and humanitarian relief to underserved communities.
What it reported doing in 2023
Provided housing, food, mental health and therapeutic services to more than 500 homeless families and justice impacted individuals disorders in the Los Angeles County area.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 100% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Accountability: 52
- Sustainability: 23
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 77.1%; rating input score 77
- Program expense ratio: 75.6%; rating input score 76
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 50%; rating input score 50; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.9%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.18; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 1; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.4%; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 28.2% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 28% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 77.1% of revenue deployed · 75.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 4 of 8 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $18.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $184K · 10 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $6M reported
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Review — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 50/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 4/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 6/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.