Waking the Village
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 680430603
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Sacramento, CA, USA
- Phone
- 9167431778
- Rating
- 88
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Centers, Clubs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,386,073
- Expenses
- $5,279,266
- Assets
- $2,523,395
- Liabilities
- $566,264
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ELIZABETH CAMPBELL (PRESIDENT)
- BRIDGET ALEXANDER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- BRIDGET ALEXANDER (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $102,116 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Waking the village offers housing, arts and leadership programs, and intensive daily support so that sacramento's homeless youth and children can get busy living rather than surviving.
What it reported doing in 2025
Programs for wellness, employment, street outreach, and prevention for youth; the creation district develops leadership and life skills throughout arts centered workshops that drive service engagement, build community, and strengthen wellness. In 2025, 511 youth engaged with the creation district with 282 workshops offered. 52% of unhoused youth connecting with the creation district engaged with next step services to resolve housing or wellness crises. The creation district's 7000 square foot site also houses our prevention and intervention team that served 716 youth in 2025 to prevent eviction, connect unhoused youth to shelters, and provide mediation support for family reunification. Over the last three years, less than 4% of the youth p&i served returned to homelessness. Street leaders, led by youth with lived experiences of homelessness, connected over 200 youth to services to address shelter and wellness needs, ensuring all engaged and stayed active in coordinated entry. The creation district also employs and supports the sacramento youth action board and their work driving policies and programs to address youth homelessness.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 81% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 93.6%; rating input score 94
- Program expense ratio: 95.5%; rating input score 95
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.48; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.9%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 17.7% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 13.8% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 93.6% of revenue deployed · 95.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $102K · 9 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $223K reported
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 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.
- 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 33/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 16/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.