Youthcast Media Group Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 842012900
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2019
- Location
- Mclean, VA, USA
- Phone
- 7032164538
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Health Support Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $536,648
- Expenses
- $469,092
- Assets
- $247,188
- Liabilities
- $123
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JAYNE O'DONNELL (CEO & FOUNDER)
Highest reported compensation
- JAYNE O'DONNELL (CEO & FOUNDER): $96,154 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Youthcast media group (ymg) teaches high school students from under-resourced communities to produce multimedia journalism that highlights solutions to the health, safety, wealth and social disparities where they live. In doing so, they harness the power of their voices to creatively reflect, engage and empower their communities. They also increase their college and career readiness and their agency.
What it reported doing in 2025
Virtual workshops/boot camps: ymg conducts paid two-week boot camps on introduction to reporting and writing and on social media for journalism, with groups of 12 or more high school students. The reporting and writing "101" boot camp teaches the basics of news writing. Students work in groups to complete short news articles, which we publish on our website and offer to media outlets that have included the dc line and the baltimore afro. Ymg also holds virtual six-week reporting and writing workshops for more experienced student journalists, who write feature articles that have been published by the miami herald, wtop and the philadelphia tribune, among others. In social media training, students learn how to create factual, grammatical and engaging social media posts using canva and capcut video editing software. These are posted on our social channels and are often shared for use by funders and media outlets publishing our articles.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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 and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 55
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 47
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 55.6%; rating input score 56
- Program expense ratio: 63.4%; rating input score 63
- Fundraising efficiency: $7.9 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 12.6%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.53; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 20.5%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.2% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.6% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 55.6% of revenue deployed · 63.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $298K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $96K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 56/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 27/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 16/100.