World Savvy

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
450473508
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
St Paul, MN, USA
Phone
6123146567
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Promotion of International Understanding

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,173,338
Expenses
$4,965,760
Assets
$4,561,251
Liabilities
$257,149

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

Leadership & pay

21 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Hamse Warfa (Chief Executive Officer)
  • Dana Mortenson (Former Chief Executive Officer)

Highest reported compensation

  • Dana Mortenson (Former Chief Executive Officer): $249,587 total reported compensation
  • Mallory Tuominen (Former Chief Program Officer): $161,149 total reported compensation
  • Whitney McKinley (Cheif Program Officer): $144,333 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

World Savvy is a national nonprofit working with educators and community leaders to reimagine learning for the 21st century and create inclusive, future-ready schools where young people are prepared to thrive in a fast-changing world. We know students must graduate ready not only to succeed in the future, but also to take responsibility for a global community that will require even more resilient peacemakers, courageous problem solvers, and passionate leaders. That's why we're empowering educators to make school inclusive, relevant, and engaging for all students, inspiring them to learn, work, and thrive as responsible global citizens. Our program focuses on systems change by increasing student engagement, expanding educator capacity and cultural competence, and strengthening school and district leadership.

What it reported doing in 2024

World Savvy's Comprehensive School Partnership Model represents our deepest level of engagement, designed to create system-wide transformation in schools and districts. This multi-year partnership approach prepares students to thrive in our globally connected world by redesigning K-12 education to increase student engagement, expand educator capacity, and strengthen school and district leadership.Our comprehensive model is built on the belief that students learn best when they are engaged in relevant and important issues that impact their communities and the world. We recognize that students' lived experiences and perspectives are assets that can be leveraged in learning every day. However, to successfully reach diverse students in their classrooms, educators need support to teach in ways they may not have learned themselves, while engaging students from communities to which they may not be native. With more than 80% of K-12 educators in the US being white and serving increasingly diverse student populations, World Savvy provides crucial support to help educators create active, engaged, culturally-responsive classrooms where all students can thrive.Through our Comprehensive School Partnership Model, we embed global competence into teaching, learning, and culture so that everyone within a school community students, educators, leaders, and families actively supports the development of essential skills and dispositions. World Savvy defines global competence as the skills, behaviors, values, and attitudes necessary to positively engage in one's community, both locally and globally. We prepare students to value multiple perspectives, find comfort with ambiguity and change, practice empathy, question prevailing assumptions, engage in inclusive dialogue, and become collaborative problem solvers, as outlined in World Savvy's Global Competence Matrix (https://bit.ly/3lWxXTQ).This comprehensive approach transforms classrooms and school buildings by enhancing educators' capacity to teach for global competence and supporting school leaders as they institutionalize this work across all aspects of school culture. Our multi-year partnerships include a full range of integrated services - workshops, resources, curriculum consulting, student design challenges, and instructional coaching for both teachers and administrators - all designed collaboratively with school leaders to align with each school's strategic vision and goals.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 88% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 65
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 42
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69%; rating input score 69
  • Program expense ratio: 71.9%; rating input score 72
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.64 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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: 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: 4%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.92; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 19.7%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.1% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 19.6% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69% of revenue deployed · 71.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $3.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $250K · 21 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2013 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 20/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 48/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 34/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.