Women Action & the Media Corp
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 271847569
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2012–2017
- Forms available
- Form 990 2014, Form 990-EZ 2017
- Location
- Cambridge, MA, USA
- Phone
- 6178765310
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Media, Communications Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $539
- Expenses
- $12,554
- Assets
- $7,446
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2017. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- DEANNA ZANDT (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- SORAYA CHEMALY (DIRECTOR)
- DEANNA ZANDT (PRESIDENT)
- JAMILAH KING (VICE PRESIDE)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2017. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Gender equity in media access, representation, employment and ownership and a world in which a just media is considered essential to a just society. Women, action & the media (wam) connects and supports media makers, activists, academics and funders working to advance womens media participation, ownership and representation. Our work is part of an advocacy movement for gender justice in media.
What it reported doing in 2017
Women, action & the media (wam)is a people-powered independent nonprofit dedicated to building a robust, effective, inclusive movement for gender justice in media. We built a brand-new website, designed to support our new project, the wam community action network (wamcan). In late may, we launched our first wamcan action, the incredibly successful fbrape campaign, which forced facebook to start treating content that promotes or makes light of gender-based violence as hate speech. Our chapters continue to thrive, and the past 12 months have seen the creation of new chapters in ottawa and in chicago, as well as the beginning of a chapter in dc, which will bring us to 7 volunteer-run chapters across north america. Wam it yourself, our annual decentralized conference, was a success again this year, featuring 14 events in 7 cities and online, engaging hundreds of wammers over the course of two weeks in march. Women, action & the media (wam)is a people-powered independent nonprofit dedicated to building a robust, effective, inclusive movement for gender justice in media. Wam connects and supports media makers, activists, academics and funders working to advance womens media participation, ownership and representation. Our work is part of an advocacy movement for gender justice in media. Since its founding, wam has been leading efforts to build an inclusive media movement. Our work includes: organizing conferences, workshops and trainings to incubate new ideas for social change; provide tools, education and support to remove barriers to media access, production, employment and ownership; share information and foster collaborations among individuals and groups; build a media ecosystem that represents the diversity of our lives and stories. Overseeing an active membership listserv that analyzes media/gender issues and, when needed, formulates a response. Creating global and local (glocal) networks of allies working to confront false and inadequate media representations of women and other marginalized groups. Challenging ourselves and each other to address and heal differences and oppressions that can prevent us from working together for mutual justice. Because power and privilege is about who gets to speak and who is listened to. Most of the time, its not women. Here are just a few numbers were out to change: news - according to journalism.coms annual state of the media report, in 2008, race and gender issues only accounted for 1% of overall news coverage. Print media - the 2008 racial and gender report card of the associated press sports editors (apse), which covers and grades 378 associated press newspapers, gave the apse newspapers and web sites a c for racial hiring practices and an f for gender hiring practices; the report card stated that women account for only 6% of sports editors, 10% of assistant sports editors, 6% of columnists, 9% of reporters and 16% of copy editors/designers (via media report to women). Radio - the state of the media report also states that in 2009, only 19% of radio news directors were women. From 2003 to 2008, the percentage of female general managers for radio stations has risen from 13.7% to 15.8% only a 2.1% increase in 5 years. The percentage of program directors went up .2%, from 10.7% in 2003 to 10.9% in 2009. Of the top 100 markets, that percentage decreases, with only 10% of programming directors listed as female (up .1% from 2003) (miw radio group). Film - the feminist blog women & hollywood found that in 2008, only 6 of the top 50 grossing films starred or were focused on women. Other surprising statistics include that only 25% of production managers, 12% of writers, 9% of directors, 5% of sound designers, and 1% of key grips were women. The rest of the statistics can be found on the blog and are worth a look, because theyre equally as disturbing. Television - among late-night writers, few women in the room by bill carter. Published in the New York times on november 11, 2009. Even though women
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 94
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 17
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 85%; rating input score 85
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -2,229.1%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.59; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -8.9% per year; rating input score 0; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -20.9% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -33.5% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 85% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $11K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2012 to 2017
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 34/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.