Watttime Corporation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
471444637
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Oakland, CA, USA
Phone
8575403535
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Support N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$16,446,600
Expenses
$18,109,740
Assets
$17,572,422
Liabilities
$10,475,173

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

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • JEREMY FREEMAN (SOFTWARE ENG): $292,631 total reported compensation
  • WILLIAM COFIELD (SR DATA SCIE): $264,586 total reported compensation
  • LAURA CIRINCIONE (DIR. OF PART): $252,437 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To raise awareness about the potential to reduce environmental harm by shifting electricity use to particular times; to encourage the development and spread of common protocols for this practice.

What it reported doing in 2024

Below are some key highlights of watttimes progress on several fronts in fy25. 1. Aer assistance: watttime continued to grow the number of people we were able to help automate their devices to shift electricity to times that reduce environmental harm (which we call automated emissions reduction or aer). In fy25 we supported over 1 billion devices to use aer. 2. Aer education: we also continued to raise awareness of aer through giving talks, news publication, and by publishing free data to enable aer free on several sites, such as carbontreasuremap.org, and gridemissionsdata.io. 3. Research to make aer more effective: in fy25 we developed a novel technique to make aer even more effective at reducing environmental harm, by adding in build marginal emissions data. More information at gem.wiki/mbers. 4. Supporting harmonization of methods. In fy25, watttime continued to support the development and spread of common protocols to shift electricity use to cleaner time, most notably by supporting the technical working group for the widely used greenhouse gas protocol. 5. Climate trace emissions data research: watttime serves as both the electricity sector lead, and the overall coordinating secretariat, of the climate trace research coalition. Climate trace combines data from numerous different nonprofits, universities, and tech companies in one free site. In fy25, the project estimated emissions of numerous pollutants, from methane to sulfur dioxide, at over 700 million locations worldwide. 6. Exploring novel applications of emissions data: in fy25, watttime also supported other climate trace coalition members in researching ways to extend the aer concept to develop similar low-cost, data-driven ways to reduce environmental harm in other sectors outside of electricity. The coalition prepared to release such techniques in november 2025.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 81% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 68% for direct work, and 32% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 95
  • Transparency & Controls: 71
  • Accountability: 76
  • Sustainability: 20
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 98.7%; rating input score 99
  • Program expense ratio: 89.6%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: $139.35 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd 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: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Pass
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 66.7%; rating input score 67; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -10.1%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.97; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.6; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 10.1%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 30.6% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 29.5% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 32.3% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 98.7% of revenue deployed · 89.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 2 of 3 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $16.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $293K · 10 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $5.9M reported
  • Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 16 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 8 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 6 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 10/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 20/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 23/100.