Missouri · Nonprofit
WEPOWER
WEPOWER (Missouri) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,430,998 to it, the largest being RIO VISTA FOUNDATION ($1,900,000). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.3M
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $7.4M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Wepower does
Mission
We activate community power to redesign social systems to be just and equitable for all through (1) developing and supporting leaders and organizations and (2) leading campaigns, coalitions, and innovative initiatives.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING INITIATIVES. This program empowers St. Louis residents to build a more equitable economy through three key initiatives. The New STL Economy Playbook: After approximately a year and a half of research, 3,000 hours of community design, and over 1,000 stakeholder engagements, WEPOWER and its partners release The New STL Economy PLAYBOOK: Planting + Growing Our Collective Wealth, with a focus on transforming St. Louis' local economy in response to the racial-wealth crisis. The Playbook offers a community-designed and research-informed vision and roadmap for transforming the local economy to support the wealth and well-being of all families who call St. Louis home. WEPOWER specifically trained a cohort of community leaders through its Tomorrow Builders Fellowship, who helped lead the creation of the Playbook.
$1,342,593 spentof which $241,756 as grants54% of program spendingEARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION (ECE) INITIATIVES Our ECE work aims to achieve universal access to quality, free, and joyful early learning experiences for children ages 0-5. A major goal is to secure approximately $100 million in sustainable public funding to address the regional ECE crisis. We launched power-building hubs to activate families and educators, encouraging them to use the Early Childhood Playbook and become civically engaged. These efforts have included educating and mobilizing voters to build a strong community coalition, working to win the necessary public investments, and creating a thriving ECE system. We also launched a regional research and planning effort that included gathering up-to-date data on the number of children aged five and under, the number of seats that exist, the gaps, the true cost of care, and an implementation plan to close the access gap. Additionally, we engaged in education and advocacy to achieve changes that improve access to quality child care education.
$1,155,045 spentof which $147,994 as grants46% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,497,638.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $233k to $976k (+319%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 7% · 2022 8% · 2023 6% · 2024 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
101% of WEPOWER’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (60% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Charli Cooksey
Chief Executive Officer
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $276k → $1.3M.
11 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of WEPOWER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
WEPOWER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
43% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund WEPOWER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 91% · 2019 69% · 2020 39% · 2021 23% · 2022 21% · 2023 49% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
31% of WEPOWER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
70% of WEPOWER's grant income comes from Missouri funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
WEPOWER has grown faster than three-quarters of the 4,206 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,206 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like WEPOWER
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- WEPOWER Elevate · disregarded
- WEPOWER Elevate · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WEPOWER: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds WEPOWER?
- WEPOWER (Missouri) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,430,998 to it, the largest being RIO VISTA FOUNDATION ($1,900,000). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WEPOWER have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $7,430,998 in grants to WEPOWER, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WEPOWER?
- RIO VISTA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,900,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WEPOWER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 46 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing