Wisdom Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
391985101
IRS 990 coverage
2015–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Milwaukee, WI, USA
Phone
4148412762
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Federated Giving Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,225,637
Expenses
$3,817,741
Assets
$1,507,924
Liabilities
$400,981

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

Leadership & pay

18 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • REV MARIAN BOYLE-ROHLOFF (PRESIDENT)
  • RACHAEL KINCAID (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • TALIB AKBAR (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • DAVID LINERS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • DAVID LINERS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $90,669 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Wisdom works with congregation-based community organizations to create understanding and build relationships across boundaries, to train leaders, and to organize people to advocate for social change that is in accord with their values.

What it reported doing in 2024

Wisdom and its affiliate organizations retooled quickly in response to the covid 19 pandemic. Intentional voter engagement campaign projects around the state changed the get out the vote outreach to virtual formats and phonebank projects. Leadership training workshops also went virtual, including the signature fiveweek leadership institute of which there were five separate sessions. This allowed for very diverse participation as sessions were open to people around the state. We initiated the wisdom school of democracy, a series of tuesday night sessions for voter education, as well as a series of saturday morning workshops focusing on various wisdom issue campaigns. We continued to hold board, core team and task force meetings, by zoom. Wisdom leaders continued to lead public actions masked and distanced for example against racism in public schools in burlington, around the state for racial equity, and at the governor's mansion and 9 Wisconsin prisons calling for protection for those in prison against covid.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 86% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 64
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 46
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 66.4%; rating input score 66
  • Program expense ratio: 73.5%; rating input score 73
  • Fundraising efficiency: $7.29 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 78.4%; rating input score 78; 21st 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 9.7%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.39; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 2.4%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 12.6% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 13.4% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 22.3% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 66.4% of revenue deployed · 73.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $91K · 18 people listed
  • Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 11 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 11 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 27/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.