Washington Center for Equitable Growth Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
474464400
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2025456002
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Economics

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$11,966,024
Expenses
$6,723,019
Assets
$12,750,745
Liabilities
$949,476

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SHAYNA STROM (PRESIDENT & CEO)
  • MELISSA GROBER-MORROW (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • JANELLE JONES (VICE PRESIDENT, POLICY)

Highest reported compensation

  • SHAYNA STROM (PRESIDENT & CEO): $322,462 total reported compensation
  • MELISSA GROBER-MORROW (VICE PRESIDENT): $242,535 total reported compensation
  • JANELLE JONES (VICE PRESIDENT, POLICY): $224,116 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Washington center for equitable growth is a non-profit research and grantmaking organization dedicated to advancing evidence-backed ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth. Organization dedicated to improving the understanding of equitable growth and inequality by supporting new academic research and bringing together scholars to share their work - build stronger bridge between academics and policymakers to help ensure that research on equitable growth and inequality is relevant, accessible, and informative to the policymaking process - share a rigorous, fact based national debate on equitable growth and inequality by facilitating scholars' participation in the media and investing in a sophisticated in-house communications and social media effort.

What it reported doing in 2024

Policy and advocacy: equitable growth's team elevates new research and policy-relevant analysis by investing and engaging in robust outreach to ensure new findings are discussed prominently in academic and policy circles in Washington and around the country.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 78% for direct work, and 22% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 47
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 70
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 34.7%; rating input score 35
  • Program expense ratio: 61.3%; rating input score 61
  • Fundraising efficiency: $30.5 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 10th 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: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 87.7%; rating input score 88; 19th 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: 9 of 9 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: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 43.8%; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.9; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 25.9%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 34.7% of revenue deployed · 61.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $4.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $322K · 14 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $215K reported
  • Consistency: 33 of 34 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 25 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 16 filed related-organization links
  • 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 35/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.