Wepower
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 823591958
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2018–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Saint Louis, MO, USA
- Phone
- 3143918033
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Urban, Community Economic Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,313,077
- Expenses
- $3,040,973
- Assets
- $1,224,465
- Liabilities
- $130,327
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Charli Cooksey (Chief Executive Officer)
Highest reported compensation
- Charli Cooksey (Chief Executive Officer): $128,864 total reported compensation
- Christopher Dennis (Chief of Staff): $114,510 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
We activate community power to redesign social systems to be just and equitable for all through (1) developing and supporting leaders and organizations and (2) leading campaigns, coalitions, and innovative initiatives.
What it reported doing in 2024
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION (ECE) INITIATIVES Our ECE work aims to achieve universal access to quality, free, and joyful early learning experiences for children ages 0-5. A major goal is to secure approximately $100 million in sustainable public funding to address the regional ECE crisis. We launched power-building hubs to activate families and educators, encouraging them to use the Early Childhood Playbook and become civically engaged. These efforts have included educating and mobilizing voters to build a strong community coalition, working to win the necessary public investments, and creating a thriving ECE system. We also launched a regional research and planning effort that included gathering up-to-date data on the number of children aged five and under, the number of seats that exist, the gaps, the true cost of care, and an implementation plan to close the access gap. Additionally, we engaged in education and advocacy to achieve changes that improve access to quality child care education.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 84% 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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Accountability: 86
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 75.4%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 82.1%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $23.61 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 70.4%; rating input score 70; 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
- 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: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 8.2%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.4; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8%; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 26.3% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 26.1% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 44.6% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 75.4% of revenue deployed · 82.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $2.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $129K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 34 of 35 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2018 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 7 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 59/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 37/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 57/100.