Women's Economic Self-sufficiency Team Corp

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
850367809
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Albuquerque, NM, USA
Phone
5052466900
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Centers to Support the Independence of Specific Populations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$6,146,596
Expenses
$4,113,632
Assets
$13,239,668
Liabilities
$1,075,373

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

Leadership & pay

20 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LINDSEY KAY (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • LINDSEY KAY (PRESIDENT): $154,545 total reported compensation
  • CHERI LOPEZ (VP OF FINANC): $107,415 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Founded in 1989, wesst is a home to entrepreneurs providing a support system of consulting, training, incubation, and lending to help new mexicans strengthen and grow their small businesses through sustainable business models, financial empowerment, and job creation. Wesst has been a long-time resource partner of the u.s. Small business administration and hosted six sba women's business centers in New Mexico. This was reduced to four sba women's business centers at 9/30/2025. Wesst is also an sba microlender and a cdfi community development financial institution.

What it reported doing in 2025

1 founded in 1988, wesst is a home to entrepreneurs providing a support system of consulting, training, incubation, and lending to help new mexicans strengthen and grow their small businesses through sustainable business models, financial empowerment, and job creation. In 2025, wesst has faciliated the start-up of 122 new businesses, the creation of 365 new jobs and over 7,199,900 million of capital access for clients. Additionally in the same year alone, we recorded 86,553,880 in client revenue across New Mexico. Headquartered in albuquerque, wesst services the entire state of New Mexico through its regional office network in farmington, hobbs and las cruces. In 2009, wesst opened wesst enterprise center (wec), a leed certified mixed-use small business incubator in downtown albuquerque that accelerates the development of growth-oriented companies, reflective of wessts ability to produce economic impact. Wesst has been a long-time resource partner of the u.s. Small business administration and hosted six sba women's business centers in New Mexico. This was reduced to four sba women's business centers at 10/1/2025. Wesst is also an sba microlender and a cdfi community development financial institution.

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 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 total spending goes to programs and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 67
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 72
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 56.7%; rating input score 57
  • Program expense ratio: 84.6%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $24.73 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 33.1%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.22; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.4%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 56.7% of revenue deployed · 84.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 18 of 18 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $3.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $155K · 20 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 57/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 48/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.