Totals
- Total revenue
- $531,754
- Total expenses
- $699,841
- Contributions and grants received
- $538,509
- Grants paid
- $0
- Program service revenue
- $0
- Investment income
- $1,435
- Other revenue
- -$8,190
- Total assets, end of year
- $1,017,492
- Total liabilities, end of year
- $58,293
- Net assets or fund balances, end of year
- $959,199
- Program services expenses (Part IX)
- $478,032
- Management and general expenses
- $177,557
- Fundraising expenses
- $44,252
- Program service expenses (Part III)
- $478,032
Program services were 68.3% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.
Line items
Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.
Revenue
Part VIII, the statement of revenue.
-
1f · All other contributions, gifts and grants
$538,509
-
1g · Noncash contributions included above
$3,320
-
3 · Investment income
total $1,435 · excluded $1,435
-
4 · Income from investment of tax-exempt bond proceeds
total $0
-
5 · Royalties
total $0
-
6a · Gross rents
real property $20,557
-
6b · Less rental expenses
real property $29,881
-
6c · Rental income or loss
real property -$9,324
-
6d · Net rental income or loss
total -$9,324 · excluded -$9,324
-
7d · Net gain or loss
total $0
-
8c · Net income from fundraising events
total $0
-
9c · Net income from gaming
total $0
-
10a · Gross sales of inventory
$1,142
-
10b · Cost of goods sold
$608
-
10c · Net income from sales of inventory
total $534 · excluded $534
-
11a · Other revenue: Rebates And Redemptions
total $600 · excluded $600
-
11e · Other revenue, total
$600
Functional expenses
Part IX, the statement of functional expenses.
-
1 · Grants to domestic organizations and governments
total $0
-
2 · Grants to domestic individuals
total $0
-
3 · Grants to foreign organizations and individuals
total $0
-
4 · Benefits paid to or for members
total $0
-
5 · Compensation of officers, directors and key employees
total $107,829 · program services $83,028 · management and general $17,253 · fundraising $7,548
-
6 · Compensation of disqualified persons
total $0
-
7 · Other salaries and wages
total $347,948 · program services $246,737 · management and general $85,977 · fundraising $15,234
-
8 · Pension plan contributions
total $0
-
9 · Other employee benefits
total $19,581 · program services $14,048 · management and general $4,734 · fundraising $799
-
10 · Payroll taxes
total $37,383 · program services $27,583 · management and general $7,934 · fundraising $1,866
-
11a · Fees: management
total $0
-
11b · Fees: legal
total $5,355 · management and general $5,355
-
11c · Fees: accounting
total $48,239 · management and general $48,239
-
11d · Fees: lobbying
total $0
-
11e · Fees: professional fundraising services
total $0
-
11f · Fees: investment management
total $0
-
11g · Fees: other
total $55,961 · program services $43,524 · management and general $3,611 · fundraising $8,826
-
12 · Advertising and promotion
total $21,237 · program services $21,237
-
13 · Office expenses
total $29,602 · program services $23,664 · management and general $1,741 · fundraising $4,197
-
14 · Information technology
total $8,178 · program services $3,376 · management and general $172 · fundraising $4,630
-
15 · Royalties
total $0
-
16 · Occupancy
total $0
-
17 · Travel
total $3,227 · program services $3,211 · management and general $16
-
18 · Travel or entertainment for public officials
total $0
-
19 · Conferences, conventions and meetings
total $0
-
20 · Interest
total $1 · management and general $1
-
21 · Payments to affiliates
total $0
-
22 · Depreciation, depletion and amortization
total $2,153 · program services $1,998 · management and general $90 · fundraising $65
-
23 · Insurance
total $4,953 · program services $2,448 · management and general $2,329 · fundraising $176
-
24a · Other expenses: Charitable giving
total $7,178 · program services $7,178
-
24b · Other expenses: Dues and other charges
total $1,016 · management and general $105 · fundraising $911
-
24e · All other expenses
total $0
Balance sheet
Part X, book values.
-
1 · Cash, non-interest-bearing
beginning of year $175,636 · end of year $61,479
-
2 · Savings and temporary cash investments
beginning of year $928,182 · end of year $929,578
-
3 · Pledges and grants receivable
beginning of year $50,000 · end of year $0
-
4 · Accounts receivable
end of year $0
-
5 · Loans and receivables from officers and key people
end of year $0
-
6 · Loans and receivables from disqualified persons
end of year $0
-
7 · Other notes and loans receivable
end of year $0
-
8 · Inventories for sale or use
beginning of year $2,886 · end of year $2,279
-
9 · Prepaid expenses and deferred charges
beginning of year $7,384 · end of year $6,380
-
10a · Land, buildings and equipment: cost or other basis
$7,585
-
10b · Land, buildings and equipment: accumulated depreciation
$3,033
-
10c · Land, buildings and equipment, net
beginning of year $6,705 · end of year $4,552
-
11 · Investments: publicly traded securities
end of year $0
-
12 · Investments: other securities
end of year $0
-
13 · Investments: program-related
end of year $0
-
14 · Intangible assets
end of year $0
-
15 · Other assets
beginning of year $38,631 · end of year $13,224
-
17 · Accounts payable and accrued expenses
beginning of year $41,875 · end of year $43,437
-
25 · Other liabilities
beginning of year $40,263 · end of year $14,856
-
27 · Net assets without donor restrictions
beginning of year $1,093,650 · end of year $922,503
-
28 · Net assets with donor restrictions
beginning of year $33,636 · end of year $36,696
Mission and programs · 2024
Mission
Food Empowerment Project seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one's food choices.
-
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 backpack
Expenses $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
As filed on the 2024 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.
Listed in Part VII
-
Lauren Ornelas
Senior Prog Dir
- Total calculated
- $107,829
- From this org
- $104,346
- From related orgs
- $0
- Other
- $3,483
- Hours/week
- 40
-
Elise Ferguson
President
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 5
-
Sharanya Krishna Prasad
Secretary
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 2
-
Mara Muoz Contreras
Treasurer
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 2
-
Jessian Choi
Board Member
- Total calculated
- $0
- Hours/week
- 2
Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those.
Grants on this return
No itemized grants to organizations on this return.
Provenance
- Return type
- form_990
- Tax year
- 2024
- Filed
- 14 May 2025
- IRS schema version
- 2024v5.1
- Source object
- 202521349349311887
Check it against the return as filed: the GivingTuesday Data Lake hosts a public copy of the original XML.
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