World Wide Web Consortium Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
844023862
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Wakefield, MA, USA
Phone
3392732711
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Engineering and Technology

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$8,709,387
Expenses
$7,014,147
Assets
$6,971,917
Liabilities
$3,397,749

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

Leadership & pay

22 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SETH DOBBS (CEO/PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • SETH DOBBS (CEO/PRESIDENT): $314,504 total reported compensation
  • RALPH SWICK (COO): $241,356 total reported compensation
  • PHILIPPE P LE HEGARET (PROJECT MANAGEMENT): $188,976 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Making the web work for everyone. W3C brings together global stakeholders to develop open standards that enable a World Wide Web that connects and empowers humanity.

What it reported doing in 2024

Development of web standards: standards developed by the consortium are adopted voluntarily. They must therefore be of the highest quality. In addition, they must meet real world needs, including overcoming the many barriers faced by disadvantaged members of society. Web standards must balance the diverse needs of industry, academia, civil society, and technologists, for the ultimate purpose of serving all of humanity. Further, because the web is a global infrastructure, the consortium must find solutions that address a range of regional and cultural requirements. The consortium conducts its work in public and seeks wide review on an ongoing basis to help ensure that wide-range perspectives inform consensus decisions about future web technology. In addition, the consortium's process requires that all standards undergo review by chartered groups with expertise in accessibility, internationalization, privacy and security; these groups help ensure that the standards meet the social needs that motivate the consortium's mission. This is known in the consortium as "horizontal review," because it is applied across standardization activities. Research: the consortium, with partners and collaborators, conducts research into new technologies, applications, and best practices related to the web. For example, in the field of web privacy, the consortium's coordination of standardization work improves support for user privacy on the web and develops general expertise in privacy-by-design for web standards. Educational materials/resources: through the efforts of the consortium's staff and volunteers (including the w3c members), the consortium produces written deliverables that include standards, guidelines, and tools that are made available to the public for free and help web developers worldwide improve their sites in terms of accessibility and internationalization. The consortium's standards have been globally recognized in a variety of ways, including through regulatory requirements related to accessible web sites, and with an emmy award for the consortium's standards to make video content more accessible on the web with text captioning and subtitles. Educational courses: the consortium develops free educational courses ("w3cx") to inform developers about web best practices, including web accessibility.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 92% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 70
  • Transparency & Controls: 51
  • Accountability: 86
  • Sustainability: 51
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 69.3%; rating input score 69
  • Program expense ratio: 86%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: $7.69 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 29; 29th 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: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • 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: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 19.5%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.99; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.49; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 18.4%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 86.1% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 81.6% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 72.1% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 69.3% of revenue deployed · 86% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $315K · 22 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $3.5M reported
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 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.
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 29/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 22/100.