Zephyr Impact

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
870941650
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Denver, CO, USA
Phone
7754467242
Rating
85
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fund Raising and Fund Distribution

Reported finances

Revenue
$667,152
Expenses
$5,802,762
Assets
$3,678,856
Liabilities
$2,630,762

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ANDREW SMILES (PRESIDENT)

People named in this filing

  • ANDREW SMILES (PRESIDENT)
  • W BRADLEY LAWLISS (SECRETARY (THRU 7/25))
  • JOE SCANTLEBURY (SECRETARY)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Zephyr impact is an impact accelerator, designing ambitious and high-impact philanthropic initiatives to address society's most urgent social issues. This 501c3 platform connects and supports donors, social entrepreneurs, and subject-matter experts to maximize impact through connected and system-wide solutions, achieve meaningful outcomes for communities. These outcomes are tracked and celebrated to create further momentum for additional philanthropic action.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025, zephyr impact strengthened and emboldened change-makers across three initiatives by structuring and implementing hands-on philanthropic support initiatives and connecting social entrepreneurs with purposeful capital and world-class talent. Zephyr enables donors to pool resources, co-fund initiatives, and expand reach and impact for promising solutions in their field of interest. In 2025, zephyr impact supported three funds, the youth wellbeing project, the thriving youth initiative, and the mindful leadership project, furthering charitable impact in the fields of leadership, conservation, and positive youth development.zephyr impact advanced this work in 2025 by providing business planning, financial planning, communications supports, and strategic guidance to change makers within these portfolios. During the year zephyr impact curated specialists to design, and deliver value-added communications and strategic support services to accelerate impact.during 2025, the zephyr impact awarded over $ 5 million in grants to 15 high-impact non-profit organizations and initiatives working in youth wellbeing, education and conservation spaces.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 92% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 94
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 68
  • Sustainability: 19
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 94.1%; rating input score 94
  • Fundraising efficiency: $25.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 75%; rating input score 75; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: -769.8%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.63; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.72; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 78.8% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 25.2% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 64.2% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 94.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $404K reported
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 15 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 15 filed related-organization links
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 8/100.