Westside Rising

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
873210546
IRS 990 coverage
2023–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
7734176605
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Community Improvement, Capacity Building N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$263,219
Expenses
$221,528
Assets
$156,903
Liabilities
$7,460

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • BRADLY JOHNSON (President)

People named in this filing

  • BRADLY JOHNSON (President)
  • MARTIN COFFER (Secretary)
  • CAROL JOHNSON (Trustee)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to engage and unite a network of local residents and organizations through training and capacity-building to leverage our collective power and shape our communities.

What it reported doing in 2025

Westside Rising is a nonprofit entity established by a coalition of community organizations and leaders that work together to provide opportunities for collaboration, capacity-building, leadership development, organizing, and civic engagement. We work to activate an own-grown base of leaders that authentically represents the best interest of Chicago? s Westside communities. Provided 1 in-person Community Organizing training for 32 residents. This training was proceeded by 3 key leadership development events that included spokesperson training 16 participants, team-led tasks 23 participants for attendance confirmation, recruitment, and organizing strategies 63 participants.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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

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 some filed totals do not add up.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 58
  • Sustainability: 52
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 72.1%; rating input score 72
  • Program expense ratio: 85.6%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: $61.77 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 24th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 15.8%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.71; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5.7% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 41.2% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 72.1% of revenue deployed · 85.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 0 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $190K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 23 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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.

Key Signals

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

  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 6 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 32/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 28/100.