Transparency & Accountability

Among America’s front-line nonprofits, DC Central Kitchen offers unmatched transparency and accountability to our donors and stakeholders.

Where we get our money, how we use it, and the impact those dollars have on our community are critical pieces of information that underscore our organization’s overall value and daily effectiveness. That’s why Charity Navigator gives us its top-level 4-star rating with a perfect 100% score in Accountability & Transparency.

Financial Overview: Where We Get Our Money

Like most other direct service nonprofits, DCCK receives charitable contributions through individual donations, private foundations, corporate foundations and giving programs, and signature events and fundraisers. We are a proud member of the United Way of the National Capital Area, an entity that provides another critical stream of income. All told, these different revenue streams generate more than $4 million dollars for DCCK and its program each year.

That’s a lot of money, and we’re sincerely grateful to the thousands of individuals across the country who make essential contributions to our programs and mission. But these gifts are not our only, or even largest, source of income! For the past several years, we’ve generated approximately half of our annual budget through social enterprise. And in 2011, thanks to the growth of our school food and catering contracts, we actually earned 55% of our total budget – some $5.5 million.

From writing a tax-deductible check over the holidays, to buying tickets to Capital Food Fight to buying boxed lunches for your next company meeting, there are many ways to support DC Central Kitchen; and we use each of these contributions responsibly and effectively in service of our programs and our clients.

Financial Responsibility: How We Use our Donor’s Dollars

As the District’s leading nonprofit provider of prepared meals to low-income residents, Food Sourcing is a critical area of our expenses. We help keep our costs low by recovering more than two tons of surplus food each day. We also pioneered a new approach to managing our costs while increasing the nutritional quality of our meals. By working with local farmers to purchase and recover fruits and vegetables that are a little too large, small, or off-color for retail sales, we’ve added literally tons of fresh produce to our meals at minimal expense. And while we’re committed to saving costs where we can, we don’t skimp on our service programs overall; our program expense ratio is highly competitive, with 83 cents of every donated dollar directly supporting our clients.

Key Stats:

• 83% of budget supports program expenses;
• 10% of budget supports administrative expenses;
• 7% of budget supports fundraising and development expenses;
• 816,000 pounds of food recovered annually;
• 242,000 pounds of fresh produce recovered annually;
• $115,000 invested in 14 local farms annually;
• 184,000 pounds of local farm products purchased annually.

In these tough economic times, DCCK is committed to Creating Jobs and Hiring Out-of-Work Adults. All of our kitchens and programs are staffed by at-risk, formerly jobless men and women who completed our Culinary Job Training program and now earn living wages and full benefits. Each year, our new crop of graduates invests more than $200,000 in payroll taxes into DC’s coffers while saving the city more than $2 million in incarceration and public benefit costs. By keeping our graduates employed and insured, we keep them out of the emergency room, unemployment line, and prison cell.

Key Stats:

• 140 Full-Time personnel;
• 28 graduates of our CJT program were hired by DCCK in 2011 and 2012 alone;
• 80 men and women completed the CJT program in 2011, with an 87% job placement rate, 85% job retention rate at 6 months, and starting wages of $11.20 per hour.

We’re also committed to Hiring Disadvantaged Populations and empowering them to advance their careers. Our staff thus reflects the diversity and authenticity of the community we live in and serve.

Key Stats (2012):

• 72% of our staff represent racial and ethnic minority groups;
• 43% of our staff are female;
• 36% of our executives, program directors, and supervisors represent racial and ethnic minority groups;
• 45% of our executives, program directors, and supervisors are female;
• 51% of our staff are DC residents.

Compensation & Benefits

In a time of falling wages and a depleted middle class, we’re committed to providing fair wages and good benefits to our employees. We also believe in being up-front about our personnel costs; delivering top-quality services to 12,000 people each year is no small task and we’re proud to employ and insure 140 committed, talented individuals to support the work of DC Central Kitchen full-time.

Key Stats (2012):

• We pay a starting minimum, living wage of $12.50 per hour to all employees;
• We pay 100% of health insurance costs for all full-time staff after 3 months, facilitating preventative care and long-term health promotion;
• We provide a $25,000 life insurance policy for all full-time employees, free of charge, after 6 months;
• We provide short-term and long-term disability insurance, free of charge, for all full-time employees after 6 months;
• We provide 403B retirement plan with a company match of 50% (to a maximum of 5% of annual salary) for all full-time employees after 6 months.
• We offer two weeks’ paid vacation and 8 paid personal days per year for all full-time employees in the first year of their tenure;
• Our highest-paid full-time employee receives a salary below the median of established salary ranges for leaders of comparably sized nonprofit organizations in our region.

Questions regarding DC Central Kitchen’s program performance, financial standing, and organizational transparency can be directed to Communications Manager Paul Day at pday@dccentralkitchen.org.