Youth Speaks Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
912134499
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Phone
4152559035
Rating
72
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Youth Development Programs

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,871,702
Expenses
$4,228,340
Assets
$6,725,807
Liabilities
$938,821

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • LIZ SUK (Executive Dir.): $171,602 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Youth speaks creates safe spaces to empower the next generation of leaders, self-defined artists, and visionary activists through written and oral literacies. We challenge youth to find, develop, publicly present, and apply their voices as creators of societal change. Ultimately, we hope to shift the perceptions of youth by combating illiteracy, alienation, and silence, creating a global movement of brave new voices bringing the noise from the margins to the core. Since 1996, youth speaks has championed a localized, national, and increasingly global movement of young people boldly declaring themselves present.

What it reported doing in 2024

National & field building programs - (1) brave new voices -- youthspeaks first founded the brave new voices (or "bnv") festival as thenational youth poetry slam in 1998, after the success of the local workin the bay area. The first slam had four teams; we now have 55competing teams and five to ten non-competing teams join us each year.bnv is about bringing together young poets from across the globe sothat they can create new pathways toward artistic growth, civicengagement, and youth development. Bnv takes place in a different cityeach year, and reaches up to 200,000 people each festival. Beginning infy14, the program was expanded to include the bnv network initiative, acomprehensive multi-year initiative to support programs andorganizations in the field of arts education and youth development through grants, consulting services, fellowships, and other resources, from within the existing bnv network and beyond, to become stronger, more sustainable, and more impactful organizations. (2) the biggerpicture is a collaboration between youth speaks, and the university ofcalifornia, san francisco center for vulnerable populations designed tocombat the rising epidemic of type 2 diabetes by empowering youth tochange the conversation about the disease, and work to change thesocial, cultural and environmental factors that have led to its spread, in the bay area and throughout California. We aim to inspire youngpeople to challenge and name the institutional, environmental andsocial causes of type 2 diabetes. It is our hope that by raising theirvoice, taking action and joining the conversation, they will inevitablyalter the trajectory of the disease, and provide youth with a virtualplatform, and real life performance opportunities for their stories tobe heard. (3) life is living is a collaborative community-based projectthat tests ideas about engaging youth, presenting public art, fosteringliteracy and storytelling, developing arts audiences, establishingnon-traditional partnerships, transforming the environmental justicemovement, and catalyzing community-building.

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 - 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: 74
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 93.4%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 63.4%; rating input score 63
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.3 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -47.2%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.59; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 4.1%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -11.6% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -4.5% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 93.4% of revenue deployed · 63.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $172K · 11 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2014 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • 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 10/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Board meeting minutes documented not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 54/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.