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CHARITY REVIEW
Issued: June 2025 Expires: June 2027

BOMA

Standards Not Met
Standards Not Met
6 7
(202) 507-5690
Post Office Box 1865
Manchester, VT, 05255
https://www.boma.ngo
📄 Full Report 🖨️ Print 📋 BBB Charity Standards

Standards For Charity Accountability

Governance

  1. Board Oversight
  2. Board Size
  3. Board Meetings
  4. Board Compensation
  5. Conflict of Interest

Measuring Effectiveness

  1. Effectiveness Policy
  2. Effectiveness Report

Finances

  1. Program Expenses
  2. Fundraising Expenses
  3. Accumulating Funds
  4. Audit Report
  5. Detailed Expense Breakdown
  6. Accurate Expense Reporting
  7. Budget Plan

Fundraising & Info

  1. Truthful Materials
  2. Annual Report
  3. Website Disclosures
  4. Donor Privacy
  5. Cause Marketing Disclosures
  6. Complaints

BOMA does not meet the following 2 Standards for Charity Accountability:

Standard 6 (Board Policy on Effectiveness)
Have a board policy of assessing, no less than every two years, the organization's performance and effectiveness and of determining future actions required to achieve its mission.

BOMA does not meet this Standard because:

  • The organization's effectiveness assessment policy does not specify that this assessment will take place at least once every two years.

Standard 7 (Board Approval of Written Report on Effectiveness)
Submit to the organization's governing body, for its approval, a written report that outlines the results of the aforementioned performance and effectiveness assessment and recommendations for future actions.

BOMA does not meet this Standard because:

  • The organization did not produce a written report outlining the results of its most recent effectiveness assessment.

BOMA meets the remaining 18 Standards for Charity Accountability.

Stated Purpose:
"to provide the people and governments of Africa's drylands with economic inclusion programs that increase resilience to economic and environmental shocks."

Year, State Incorporated:
2005, VT

Also Known As:
The BOMA Project

BOMA reports that it operates as a strategic partner and technical advisor to nongovernmental organizations. The organization works to help embed humanitarian response systems in fragile states and regions. As a technical advisor to governments, BOMA supports the activities and processes that will lead to the adoption of the graduation approach into social protection systems, beginning with Kenya. The organization reports that its Rural Entrepreneur Access Program (REAP) model has already helped over 804,000 people to escape extreme poverty. REAP began as a focused project to lift pastoral women in Northern Kenya from extreme poverty. BOMA participants enroll in REAP for 12 to 24 months, during which they learn valuable skills, launch sustainable businesses, and form savings groups with their peers — all with the guidance of their BOMA mentors. Upon graduating from these programs, the organization reports that the participants have measurably grown their family’s savings, assets, and household income. In addition to financial and business success, participants gain confidence, more decision-making capabilities in their household, and many have gone on to take up positions in local committee. Households also report better rates of school enrollment and attendance, decreases in childhood malnutrition, and an overall better future. In light of this success, REAP is now being scaled and adapted to maximize efficiency in an effort to transform the lives of three million women, youth, and refugees by 2027.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, BOMA's program expenses were:

Program services $12,711,967
Total Program Expenses $12,711,967

Chief Executive
Sam Owilly, Chief Executive Officer

Compensation*
$170,006

Chair of the Board
H. Perry Boyle, Jr.

Chair's Profession / Business Affiliation
Co-Founder, MITS Capital

Board Size
12

Paid Staff Size
12

*2024 compensation, as reported by the organization, includes annual salary and, if applicable, benefit plans, expense accounts, and other allowances.

Method(s) Used:
Direct mail appeals, Grant proposals, Internet, Direct mail appeals, Planned giving arrangements

Fundraising costs were 4% of related contributions. (Related contributions, which totaled $11,933,112, are donations received as a result of fundraising activities.)

This organization is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is eligible to receive contributions deductible as charitable donations for federal income tax purposes.

The following information is based on BOMA's audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023.

Source of Funds
Grants and contributions $8,482,721
Government grants $3,450,391
Interest and other income $26,841
Investment income, net $-253,046
Total Income $12,212,999

Programs: 92% Fundraising: 4% Administrative: 5%

Total Income $12,212,999
Total expenses: $13,842,428
  Program expenses $12,711,967
  Fundraising expenses $505,242
  Administrative expenses $625,219
  Other expenses $0
Income in Excess of Expenses $-1,629,429
Beginning Net Assets $10,575,346
Other Changes In Net Assets $0
Ending Net Assets $8,945,917
Total Liabilities $190,365
Total Assets $9,136,282

An organization may change its practices at any time without notice. A copy of this report has been shared with the organization prior to publication. It is not intended to recommend or deprecate, and is furnished solely to assist you in exercising your own judgment. If the report is about a charity and states the charity meets or does not meet the Standards for Charity Accountability, it reflects the results of an evaluation of information and materials provided voluntarily by the charity. The name Better Business Bureau is a registered service mark of the International Association of Better Business Bureaus.

This report is not to be used for fundraising or promotional purposes.

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Report completed by:
BBB Wise Giving Alliance