Women Writing the West
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 841297060
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2017–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Durango, CO, USA
- Phone
- 9707394361
- Rating
- 65
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Humanities Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $40,540
- Expenses
- $38,187
- Assets
- $127,758
- Liabilities
- $3,515
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Gayle Gresham (Past President)
- Vicki Felmlee (President)
- Suzi Minor (President Elect/LAURA Chair)
People named in this filing
- Stephanie West Allen (Director)
- Doris Eraldi (Director)
- Deborah Swenson (Director)
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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To address, educate, coordinate and support writing that acknowledges and documents the recognition of women and their contribution to the history, culture and growth of the American West; to preserve the historical importance through writing and other literary skills available through publishing and the use of seminars, meetings, newsletters, conventions, competitions, and other communications tools
What it reported doing in 2025
The Women Writing the West (WWW) High School Writing Contest recognizes the stories of women and girls and their contribution to the history, culture and growth of the North American West. This is defined by WWW as anywhere on the North American continent west of the Mississippi River, including Alaska and Hawaii, Canada west of Ontario, and Mexico.The awards are:*The WWW WILLA Youth Award for Poetry/Songwriting*The WWW LAURA Youth Award for Short Fiction*The WWW DOWNING Youth Award for Nonfiction/Journalism
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.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 57
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 57
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 56.1%; rating input score 56
- Program expense ratio: 59.5%; rating input score 59
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.8%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.35; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -8.7% per year; rating input score 0; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -4.5% per year; rating input score 0; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.4% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 56.1% of revenue deployed · 59.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 2 filed program accomplishments · $23K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 56/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 59/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 54/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 21/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.