Zero Breast Cancer
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 680386016
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- Phone
- 4155071949
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Cancer Research
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $165,276
- Expenses
- $390,335
- Assets
- $0
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- DAVID SHAO (President)
Highest reported compensation
- ANNE-MARIE HARTWIG (Deputy Director): $94,610 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Zero Breast Cancer (ZBC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1995 to investigate possible environmental causes of high incidence rates of invasive breast cancer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zero Breast Cancer promotes breast cancer risk reduction through translation of scientific research and evidence-based recommendations that support health and wellness at key stages of life. By 2005, the Organization noted that breast cancer rates had declined in the Bay Area and that outcomes for those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer were improving. However, ZBC also noted that this disease still strikes 1 in 8 women in their lifetime and that 40,000 women die of this disease in the United States of America each year. While ZBC continues a focus on the Bay Area, outreach has extended across the globe. Breast cancer risks are not clear-cut or sudden; they are complex, they interact, and they are embedded in our physical and our social environments. Therefore, risk reduction and preve
What it reported doing in 2024
Educational and Outreach Programs: ZBC produces clear, relevant, evidence-based educational content to raise awareness of social and built environment risk factors for breast cancer and provide practical advice for how to reduce that risk. Two key strategies for reaching our intended audience are 1) to use the power of the internet to engage interested parties and 2) to partner with a variety of organizations directly serving the communities and demographics ZBC has determined to be our priorities. Our materials were readily available through frequent, multichannel digital communication initiatives, including blogs, newsletters, and frequent social media posts. Our materials were also shared at virtual and in-person health fairs and promoted in our webinar series. ZBC collaborates with community partners as part of our dissemination plan for ZBC materials to reach lower-income and higher-need communities in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. ZBC has educational resources in the following areas:1) Girls New Puberty seeks to reduce the likelihood of early puberty and therefore lifetime breast cancer risk. Current multilingual materials directed at parents and caregivers include multilingual bookmarks, infographics, YouTube videos and microsites. These are freely available on ZBCs website, and shared through social media, Google ads, partner organizations and local and national health fairs. A coloring book directed at kids ages 5+ is available in 5 languages and/or cultures (English, Spanish, French, Tagalog, and American Indian). It is shared digitally on ZBCs website and promoted through Google Ads; a hard copy English-language coloring book was disseminated through schools and federally qualified health centers. 2) Healthy Futures is a new activity program for kids ages 5-7 to promote healthy habits to reduce the likelihood of early puberty and therefore lifetime breast cancer risk. The activity book provides different age-appropriate activities in four categories associated with reducing the risk of early puberty and breast cancer later in life: moving more, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and feeling better (managing stress). Kids complete one activity in each of four areas to receive a patch or zipper pull as a prize. The activity book was posted on ZBCs website and shared with ZBCs audiences on social media and in emails. 3) 13 Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer focuses on ways people can reduce their lifetime risk of breast cancer through healthy behaviors and modifications of their environments. Materials include a web-page, poster, brochures and postcards in English and Spanish. The campaign is shared digitally on ZBCs website, through Google Ads, at on-line events, on social media. Hard copy dissemination focused on health clinics, high schools, social services agencies, and adult schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. 4) Generations seeks to reduce the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals across multiple generations by educating young adults about how to reduce exposure. Available in English and Spanish, it was developed in collaboration with the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) advisory group with input from CHDS researchers. Campaign materials include six educational posters and a section of ZBCs website. 5) Survivorship Fact-sheets: ZBC adapted the Pathways Study newsletter articles produced in collaboration with breast cancer survivors and Pathways researchers for a broader audience. The topics were identified as important by multi-lingual and financially stressed Black, Asian-American, Latina and White women. Digital copies of Memory & Thinking Problems, Breast Cancer-Related Nerve Pain, and Heart Health & Breast Cancer were disseminated on the ZBC website and through webinars and Google Ads. Hard copies of these Fact-sheets were shared through health clinics, oncology facilities and cancer organizations. 6) Webinar Series. ZBC hosts webinars featuring researchers and comm
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 75% for direct work, and 25% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 88
- Transparency & Controls: 93
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 3
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 79.4%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $19.62 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -136.2%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 24.2%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 0.6% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -17.5% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -15.8% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 79.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $310K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $95K · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes grants
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 57/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization is recorded as not currently operating in California.