Nonprofit · EIN 26-1743952
FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT
Tax-exempt · SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114
Financials
| Year ended | Form | Revenue | Expenses | Net income | Total assets | Liabilities | Net assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 31, 2024 | 990 | $531,754 | $699,841 | -$168,087 | $1,017,492 | $58,293 | $959,199 |
| December 31, 2023 | 990 | $622,819 | $779,106 | -$156,287 | $1,209,424 | $82,138 | $1,127,286 |
Financial details: 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024
Revenue
- Contributions, gifts and grants
- $538,509
- Program service revenue
- $0
- Investment income
- $1,435
- Net rental income
- -$9,324
- Net income from sales of inventory
- $534
- Other revenue
- -$8,190
Expenses
- Grants and similar amounts paid
- $0
- Compensation of officers, directors and key employees
- $107,829
- Other salaries and wages
- $347,948
- Salaries, compensation and benefits (total)
- $512,741
- Professional fundraising fees
- $0
- Legal fees
- $5,355
- Accounting fees
- $48,239
- Travel
- $3,227
- Depreciation
- $2,153
- Program services (functional)
- $478,032
- Management and general (functional)
- $177,557
- Fundraising (functional)
- $44,252
Balance sheet and other
- Total assets, start of year
- $1,209,424
- Total assets, end of year
- $1,017,492
- Total liabilities, end of year
- $58,293
- Net assets, end of year
- $959,199
- Land, buildings and equipment
- $4,552
- Net assets without donor restrictions
- $922,503
- Net assets with donor restrictions
- $36,696
- Gross receipts
- $562,243
- Employees
- 7
- Volunteers
- 40
- Year formed
- 2007
- State of legal domicile
- CA
From the e-filed returns the IRS publishes as XML (latest three processing years; amended returns replace the original). PDF copies at the IRS.
Officers, directors and key employees
As listed on the 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024, highest compensation first.
| Name | Title | Hours / week | Compensation | Other / benefits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lauren Ornelas | Senior Prog Dir Trustee or director, Officer | 40 | $104,346 | $3,483 |
| Elise Ferguson | President Trustee or director, Officer | 5 | $0 | $0 |
| Sharanya Krishna Prasad | Secretary Trustee or director, Officer | 2 | $0 | $0 |
| Mara Muoz Contreras | Treasurer Trustee or director, Officer | 2 | $0 | $0 |
| Jessian Choi | Board Member Trustee or director | 2 | $0 | $0 |
990 for the year ended December 31, 2023: 6 people
| Name | Title | Hours / week | Compensation | Other / benefits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lauren Ornelas | President Trustee or director, Officer | 40 | $109,119 | $6,912 |
| Elise Ferguson | Treasurer Trustee or director, Officer | 5 | $0 | $0 |
| Jeannine Cicco Baker | Board Member Trustee or director | 2 | $0 | $0 |
| Sharanya Krishna Prasad | Board Member Trustee or director | 2 | $0 | $0 |
| Anika Lehde | Board Member Trustee or director | 2 | $0 | $0 |
| Jessian Choi | Board Member Trustee or director | 2 | $0 | $0 |
Address and contacts
- Address (IRS master file)
- 2261 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114-1612
- In care of
- % LAUREN ORNELAS
- Principal officer (990 for 2024)
- Lauren Ornelas, PO Box 13425, San Luis Obispo, CA 94306
- Signed the 990
- Mara Muoz Contreras, Treasurer
- Phone
- (707) 779-8004
- Website
- www.foodispower.org
- Return prepared by
- Iryna AC
California records
California keeps its own records of charities and corporations. Search them by EIN 26-1743952 or by the name FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT.
- Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers
- Registration status and filed reports (CT-TR-1, RRF-1)
- Secretary of State, bizfile Online
- Corporation status, entity number, agent for service
- Franchise Tax Board
- Entity status letter (state tax exemption, good standing)
Mission
Food Empowerment Project seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one's food choices.
Program accomplishments
- VeganismWe began 2024 with our "Why Compassion?" project, a series of videos in which vegans of various ages and backgrounds share why compassion for animals is their principal motivation for going and staying vegan. We conducted our second-annual Youth ScholarshipContest, for creative youths aged 11 to 24 who have a passion for compassion to win $300 to $500 by using their writing or illustrating talent to advocate for ethical veganism and help create a kinder world. Fox 56 News did a segment on it.F. E. P. organized a free webinar, "Embodiment of Injustice: The Dairy Industry, which provided an eye-opening look at injustices that are embedded in the dairy industry. The event featured guest speakersincluding a dairy workerand videos, through which attendees gained a deeper understanding of their food choices and how they can stand up against the dairy industry. A post-event survey showed that people loved the webinar. One attendee wrote: An incredibly eye-opening and compassionate seminar, providing different but important perspectives about the dairy industry and its cultural impact on vulnerable communities. Other responses included: Motivating and validating, Revolutionary, and Very informative and full of resources that we can share with others. In fact, 100 percent of attendeeswho werent all vegansaid the seminar made them interested in learning more about veganism.We asked our California supporters to call out the greenwashing being carried out by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), one of the biggest utility companies in the state. PG&E wants its own customers to fund the cost overruns on construction of biodigesters in Merced County, a project that has exceeded its budget by more than $8 million. F. E. P. submitted comments to PG&E with the assistance of a climate scientist; we asked people to leave a public comment and inform the company that not only should these costs be covered by the developers and not community members, but this project will intensify the suffering of cows already exploited in the dairy industry.We launched our latest culinary website, VeganSoulFood.org, which targets a large audience with a wide range of recipes from throughout the African diaspora. It includes more than 25 vegan recipes celebrating rich flavors and showing people they dont have to sacrifice their favorite foods to go and stay vegan. F. E. P. was able to produce videos to attract appropriate vegan recipes. When launched the site has received more than 1,566 pageviews in two months, and notable media coverage.We put up an anti-dairy billboard near the University of California, Los Angeles, directing people to our website GotColonization.com, where they can learn about the industrys impact on animals, human health, workers, and the environment. Vegan Chinese Food was beautifully printed as a 48 full-color recipe guide.Eating Vegan in College page, created as ideal not only for vegan students who want to stay vegan, but for those who go vegan in college, as well as students who want to go vegan once they leave home for college but arent sure how. It helps them navigate everything from accessibility challenges to cooking in dorm rooms.We created a Vegan Holiday Recipes page that was promoted for both vegans and nonvegans to share. We also developed a Vegan Hacks page for vegans and the veg-curious, which explains how to transform whole-foods ingredients into meat and dairy alternatives.We created YouTube video ads highlighting two of our resources: the Vegan Mexican Food (VMF) and Vegan Filipino Food (VFF) websites and their accompanying recipes guides. These eye-catching ads got excellent engagement, with VMF receiving more than 30,000 views and 14,000 clicks to the website and VFF getting more than 2,000 views and 1,100 clicks. In other words, about half of the people who saw the ads demonstrated interest in them.Team members at F.E.P. did various speaking and tabling events in California, Kentucky, and North Carolina and England as well as various podcasts and interviews.We added more than 10 recipes to our main recipe page.We also created two new issue web pages:Climate Crisis resource, which serves as both an introduction to this subject and a call to action. It emphasizes why the impact of animal consumption needs to be part of the climate conversation and why going vegan is a step forward in the fight for climate justice.Focusing on the troubling popularity of commercial octopus farming. The Ethical and Environmental Impacts of Octopus Farming takes a deep dive into the reasons octopus farming is a terrible idea, especially concerns about animal cruelty. The page ends with recommendations that people can take to help stop this trend.Our views for our main site, FoodIsPower.org, for 2024 was 2,924,535, our GotColonization.com website received 61,368 views, and all of our vegan cultural food sites combined received 347,271.We mailed 600 pieces of our anti-dairy booklet and around 750 of our cultural recipe guides.Expenses $303,079
- Farm Worker RightsWe worked on various pieces of legislation regarding housing and education for farm workers and their children.We conducted our annual school supply drive and donated more than 200 backpacks to the children of farm workers living along the Central Coast of California. These farm workers primarily pick strawberries. We also connected with Jos Moreno Hernndez, a former farm worker who is now an engineer and a retired NASA astronaut, who kindly sent in an encouraging quote to be included in each backpackExpenses $91,879
- Access to Healthy FoodWe continued to expose the Safeway/Albertsons policy that impacts the health of communities.Expenses $55,964
- Chocolate We continued to update our Chocolate List, to which 100 companies were added in 2024, and the app was downloaded 18,000 times.Expenses $27,110
What it must file and when
IRS records say it files Form 990 or 990-EZ. Based on its last return; a smaller organization may file the 990-N. Its accounting year ends in December, so each return is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after that.
| Tax year | Year ended | Due | IRS public records |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | December 31, 2025 | May 15, 2026 | Not on file |
| 2024 | December 31, 2024 | May 15, 2025 | 990 on file |
| 2023 | December 31, 2023 | May 15, 2024 | 990 on file |
IRS record
- EIN
- 26-1743952
- Tax-exempt status
- 501(c)(3): Charitable, religious, educational or scientific organization
- Foundation status
- Publicly supported organization (170(b)(1)(A)(vi))
- Donations deductible (Pub 78)
- Public charity, 50% deduction limit
- Exempt since
- 2008
- Accounting year ends
- December
- Files
- Form 990 or 990-EZ
- Category (NTEE)
- Food, agriculture and nutrition (K30)
- Assets (IRS master file)
- $1,017,492
- Income (IRS master file)
- $562,243
Filing history
| Form | Year ended | Revenue | Expenses | Assets | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 990 | December 2024 | $531,754 | $699,841 | $1,017,492 | IRS |
| 990 | December 2023 | $622,819 | $779,106 | $1,209,424 | XML |
| 990 | December 2022 | $663,736 | $722,980 | $1,370,400 | IRS |
| 990 | December 2021 | – | – | – | IRS |
| 990 | December 2020 | – | – | – | IRS |
990-N: the IRS bulk file holds only the latest e-Postcard per organization; earlier years come from archived copies of that file since 2020 and can have gaps (the IRS e-Postcard search lists every one). 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF, 990-T: every e-filed return in the IRS e-file index since 2019; XML for the latest three processing years, amounts from the IRS Statistics of Income extracts before that. PDF copies and determination letters at the IRS (search EIN 26-1743952).
Questions about FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT
- What is the EIN of FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT?
- The employer identification number (EIN) of FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT is 26-1743952.
- Is FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT tax-exempt?
- Yes. The IRS lists it as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) since 2008.
- Are donations to FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT tax-deductible?
- Yes. It is listed in IRS Publication 78 (Public charity, 50% deduction limit).
- Which annual return does FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT file?
- Form 990 or 990-EZ. Based on its last return; a smaller organization may file the 990-N.
- When is the next return of FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT due?
- The return for tax year 2025 (the year ending December 31, 2025) is due May 15, 2026. Form 8868 extends it by six months; the 990-N cannot be extended.
- When did FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT last file with the IRS?
- The latest return in the IRS public files is the 990 for the year ended December 2024.
- Who is the principal officer of FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT?
- The 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 names Lauren Ornelas.
- Who are the officers and directors of FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT?
- The 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 lists 5 people; 1 received compensation from the organization, the highest $104,346 (Lauren Ornelas, Senior Prog Dir).
- How much revenue does FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT have?
- On its 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 it reported revenue of $531,754, expenses of $699,841 and total assets of $1,017,492 at year end.
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All nonprofits in SAN FRANCISCO · California · Food, agriculture and nutrition