Westchester Residential Opportunities Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
132617705
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
White Plains, NY, USA
Phone
9144284507
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Housing, Shelter N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,301,015
Expenses
$4,636,716
Assets
$6,798,191
Liabilities
$829,164

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

21 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MARLENE ZARFES (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • ANDREW SMITH (DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • MARLENE ZARFES (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $190,244 total reported compensation
  • ANDREW SMITH (DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $165,665 total reported compensation
  • NNEKA REED (DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS): $126,921 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Westchester residential opportunities (wro) is a hud-certified housing counseling agency with specialized programs to combat housing discrimination, market affordable housing opportunities, and to assist first time homebuyers, the elderly and those facing eviction or mortgage default.additionally, wro provides housing and case management for people with mental illness. Wro promotes housing mobility, affordability and stability for marginalized populations, and low-to-moderate income groups.

What it reported doing in 2025

Fair housing programwro's fair housing program works to eliminate discrimination in the housing and lending markets. The program handles complaints and conducts investigations, including both systemic and complaint-based testing, and accessible design and construction investigations. Wro's fair housing program provides education and outreach to consumers, civic and business and other non-profit organizations, and trains real estate professionals, co-op boards and management companies to comply with fair housing laws. In 2025, 164 families and individuals were assisted with fair housing complaints, and 170 individual real estate professionals and 94 co-op apartment directors were trained in our fair housing workshops.additionally, wro manages an affirmative housing marketing program for rent and resale of fair and affordable homes. As part of this program, wro collects applications and administers a lottery for eligible applicants. In 2025, wro marketed 40 rental units in two rental developments and six ownership units in two developments, and assisted in the closing of two re-sales of existing affordable homes.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 77% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 59% for direct work, and 41% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - 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: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 85
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 51
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 75.5%; rating input score 76
  • Program expense ratio: 85.4%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $57.73 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 75th 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: 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: 12.5%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.47; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 12.7%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.9% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 17.6% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 75.5% of revenue deployed · 85.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 15 of 15 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $190K · 21 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2016 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 47/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 27/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.