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IRS-authorized e-file provider · not the IRS

Nonprofit · EIN 84-4826419

CIVIL EATS

Tax-exempt · COTATI, CA 94931

Financials

$1.1M$1.1M2024
Revenue Expenses · by fiscal year end
Financials of CIVIL EATS by year, from its e-filed returns
Year endedFormRevenueExpensesNet incomeTotal assetsLiabilitiesNet assets
December 31, 2024990$1,072,511$1,128,228-$55,717$1,573,563$13,570$1,559,993
Financial details: 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024

Revenue

Contributions, gifts and grants
$1,014,128
Program service revenue
$8,430
Investment income
$47,667
Other revenue
$2,286

Expenses

Grants and similar amounts paid
$3,361
Compensation of officers, directors and key employees
$150,750
Other salaries and wages
$602,004
Salaries, compensation and benefits (total)
$852,149
Professional fundraising fees
$0
Legal fees
$7,505
Accounting fees
$37,423
Depreciation
$5,067
Program services (functional)
$826,499
Management and general (functional)
$173,641
Fundraising (functional)
$128,088

Balance sheet and other

Total assets, start of year
$1,628,254
Total assets, end of year
$1,573,563
Total liabilities, end of year
$13,570
Net assets, end of year
$1,559,993
Land, buildings and equipment
$5,411
Net assets without donor restrictions
$1,459,839
Net assets with donor restrictions
$100,154
Gross receipts
$1,072,511
Employees
11
Volunteers
4
Year formed
2020
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.

NameTitleHours / weekCompensationOther / benefits
Naomi StarkmanCEO President of the Board
Trustee or director, Officer
40$150,750$12,138
Matthew WheelandDirector of Operations
Highest-paid employee
40$120,750$3,623
Margo TrueEditorial Director
Highest-paid employee
40$100,750$8,649
Sam MogannamMember
Trustee or director, Officer
1$0$0
Esther ParkChairperson
Trustee or director, Officer
1$0$0
Will RosenzweigChairperson former
Trustee or director, Officer
1$0$0
Christine SchantzTreasurer
Trustee or director, Officer
1$0$0
Thomas HuangMember
Trustee or director
1$0$0

Address and contacts

Address (IRS master file)
502 E COTATI AVE UNIT 7014, COTATI, CA 94931-1214
In care of
% NAOMI STARKMAN
Principal officer (990 for 2024)
Naomi Starkman, 502 E Cotati Ave Ste 7014, Cotati, CA 94931
Signed the 990
NAOMI STARKMAN, CEO President of the Board
Phone
(917) 539-3924
Return prepared by
Mullins PC

Mission

Civil Eats is a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system. We publish stories that shift the conversation around sustainable agriculture in an effort to build economically and socially just communities.

990 for the year ended December 31, 2024

Program accomplishments

  • Since 2009, Civil Eats, an independent, nonprofit digital news site about the American food system, has focused on high-quality, original journalism which breaks news, educates leaders and policymakers, and serves as a resource for broader mainstream media. Civil Eats brings a clear and compelling voice to a complex range of issues. Our 16 years of reporting experience has shown that complicated and often underreported stories on climate, the environment, social justice, and on policy issues such as health and nutrition, are all made more accessible to a mainstream audience through our nuanced, solutions-oriented reporting. For the first four years, Civil Eats operated with no funding and as a labor of love. Today, Civil Eats has achieved significant impact and reach: It raised an unprecedented $100,000 via Kickstarter in 2013, was named Publication of the Year in 2014 by the James Beard Foundation, inducted into the Library of Congress in 2019, and has been honored with many more awards and accolades. Civil Eats has reported on some of the most important food and agriculture stories of our time. Unique in the media landscape, food justice has been central to its reporting since its inception. Civil Eats collaborates with high-profile print and online publications, and these partnerships bring Civil Eats important stories to millions of new readers, expanding the dialogue on economic and social justice. The site is on the regular reading lists of policymakers in D.C. and grassroots leaders alike, and its stories appear in daily news roundups, and are shared on social media by elected officials. In 2024, the Civil Eats team of editors and staff reporters produced more than 150 original stories alongside 65 freelance reporters. The team strove to emphasize quality over quantity again and published fewer overall stories and fewer reprints from other publications. As a result, Civil Eats was nominated and awarded for more awards than ever before. Civil Eats won a 2024 Excellence in Newsletters, Single Newsletter for its members-only newsletter, The Deep Dish, from the Online News Association. ONA, whose global prizes honor excellence in digital journalism, also nominated Civil Eats as a finalist for General Excellence in Online Journalism (micro newsroom) for the second year in a row. Civil Eats received four awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Former Contributing Editor Lee van der Voo won in the Business, Including Marketing category for reporting on the abusive and, in some cases, deadly working conditions of marine observers in the tuna industry. Contributor Alice Driver received the Donald Robinson Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism for her reporting on the Honduran spiny lobster industry, which we included in our 2023 investigative series Walanthropy. Former Senior Reporter Wesley Brown won in the Social Change category for his story on the historically systemic racism behind the USDAs lack of financial support for Black farmers. Contributor Daniel Walton won an honorable mention in the Food & Drink category for his story about farmers who see untapped potential in wild tree crops like acorn and black walnut. Senior Staff Reporter and Contributing Editor Lisa Held and Contributor Ciara OBrien were finalists in the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists 2024 Dateline Awards in the Online, Non-Breaking News category for their reporting on virtual fences and a new Lidl supermarket, respectively. Photojournalist Jake Price was a finalist in the Online Photography category for his photo essay on DC Central Kitchens efforts to fight summer hunger in the nations capital. Former Staff Reporter Grey Moran won first place for print features from SPJs Louisiana chapter for their reporting on the challenges U.S. shrimpers endure in the face of cheap imports. Held, Contributor Alice Driver, and Contributor Aaron Van Neste were nominated for a James Beard Foundation Media Award for excellence in investigative reporting for our 2023 series on Walmart and the Walton Family Foundation, Walanthropy. Contributor Virginia Gewin was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Media Award for excellence in health reporting for her story on the Salton Sea. Moran won first place in the North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) 2024 Writing Contest (News Reporting category) for their story, How Crop Insurance Prevents Some Farmers from Adapting to Climate Change. Moran also won third place from NAAJ in the Next Generation/Young Writer category for their reporting. Held won Third Place from NAAJ for Feature Reporting for her story, Walmarts Regenerative Foodscape, part of our 2023 Walanthropy investigative series. Both Moran and former Executive Editor Twilight Greenaway received honorable mentions in the same category for their reporting on paraquat and regenerative chicken farming, respectively. Held also won an honorable mention from NAAJ in the Ongoing Reporting/Series category for her reporting on the farm bill. Contributor Alice Driver won the Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for her book, The Life and Death of the American Worker, which includes reporting previously published in Civil Eats 2022 investigative series, Injured and Invisible. Contributor Gabe Pietrorazio won an honorary mention from Military Reporters and Editors for his reporting on food insecurity in the military. Also in 2024, after 15 years at the helm of Civil Eats, founder and former Editor-in-Chief Naomi Starkman moved into the role of executive director as Editorial Director Margo True took the reins of its newsroom. Former Managing Editor Matthew Wheeland was promoted to the role of operations director. Civil Eats also welcomed Senior Editor Momo Chang and Contributing Editor Brian Calvert, formerly of High Country News, to its team.
    Expenses $826,499 · grants $3,361 · revenue $8,430
  • In 2024, Civil Eats welcomed two new board members: Sam Mogannam, the second-generation owner of San Francisco-based Bi-Rite Family of Businesses, and Thomas Huang, assistant managing editor for journalism initiatives at The Dallas Morning News. After nine years, and nearly a year of intensive work, Civil Eats removed its paywall in September 2024, receiving an outpouring of positive feedback from members, new readers, and news media. In addition to a remarkably smooth launch of its newly accessible site, Civil Eats also launched a successful membership drive. In 2024, Civil Eats undertook a year-long investigation that resulted in the five-part series Chemical Capture: The Power and Impact of the Pesticide Industry. It examined whether consolidated corporate power may be contributing to the ubiquitous use of pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals, and whether the influence that chemical companies wield in the halls of power make it difficult to sort facts from marketing or engage in rigorous cost-benefit analyses. Oceans reporting fellow, Alexandra Talty, undertook a year-long fellowship with the Pulitzer Center. Her series of four articles, Kelps Tangled Lines, on the present and future of the U.S. kelp industry in the food system, were well received and picked up by multiple outlets and media partner, Public News Service, produced two radio versions of the stories. Civil Eats also undertook a five-part series, Climate on the Menu, produced in partnership with Eater. As the restaurant industry struggles to cope with hotter temperatures, floods, supply disruptions, escalating costs, and other impacts from climate change, the series covered how some businesses are finding resourceful, workable ways of addressing the crisis. Civil Eats also launched its series Planting the Seeds of Justice, which continued into 2025. In this series, the site deepened its long-standing environmental justice reporting by focusing on the connections between climate, health, soil health, and equity for farmers of color. The team investigated new and viable solutions for farmers, producers, scientists, and advocates as they seek to right historical wrongs from the ground up. The team also completed its first Crash Course in July 2024, a four-week email series that offered a quick education on different ways the climate crisis is affecting the food system, with an emphasis on some of the solutions we have reported on in the past 16 years. Participants received four emails over the course of the month and were invited to a special Slack channel to discuss the topics. In a fraught media landscape, Civil Eats has withstood the shocks faced by many larger and more deeply funded news outlets. It has stood the test of time, proving itself to be an extremely careful steward of its funding, and a groundbreaking thought-leader in this space.

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 yearYear endedDueIRS public records
2025December 31, 2025May 15, 2026No data
2024December 31, 2024May 15, 2025990 on file
2023December 31, 2023May 15, 2024990 on file

IRS record

EIN
84-4826419
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
2020
Accounting year ends
December
Files
Form 990 or 990-EZ
Assets (IRS master file)
$2,236,931
Income (IRS master file)
$2,009,030

Filing history

FormYear endedRevenueExpensesAssetsReturn
990December 2024–––IRS
990December 2023$1,288,262$954,417$1,628,254IRS
990December 2022$720,884$803,695$1,289,484IRS
990December 2021–––IRS
990December 2020–––IRS

990-N: the IRS publishes only the latest e-Postcard per organization; earlier years appear here as 990.tax collects the monthly files. 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.

Questions about CIVIL EATS

What is the EIN of CIVIL EATS?
The employer identification number (EIN) of CIVIL EATS is 84-4826419.
Is CIVIL EATS tax-exempt?
Yes. The IRS lists it as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) since 2020.
Are donations to CIVIL EATS tax-deductible?
Yes. It is listed in IRS Publication 78 (Public charity, 50% deduction limit).
Which annual return does CIVIL EATS 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 CIVIL EATS due?
The return for tax year 2026 (the year ending December 31, 2026) is due May 17, 2027. Form 8868 extends it by six months; the 990-N cannot be extended.
When did CIVIL EATS 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 CIVIL EATS?
The 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 names Naomi Starkman.
Who are the officers and directors of CIVIL EATS?
The 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 lists 8 people; 3 received compensation from the organization, the highest $150,750 (Naomi Starkman, CEO President of the Board).
How much revenue does CIVIL EATS have?
On its 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 it reported revenue of $1,072,511, expenses of $1,128,228 and total assets of $1,573,563 at year end.

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