Abode Contemplative Care

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
273691295
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
San Antonio, TX, USA
Phone
2109679891
Rating
85
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Hospices

Reported finances

Revenue
$458,725
Expenses
$694,025
Assets
$927,437
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MARY THORSBY (CEO)
  • KATE PHIPPS (CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • KATE PHIPPS (CEO): $53,077 total reported compensation
  • MARY THORSBY (CEO): $29,683 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Abode's mission is to teach the art of contemplative living and dying while providing a beautiful home and compassionate care for those at end of life - at no charge. Abode runs completely on donations and grants. Abode's vision: "we live in a world where death is not feared, and we live fully until we die." abode's guests are those under hospice care who are in their last months, weeks, or days of life and have no place to live or anyone to care for them properly around the clock. The staff, volunteers and doulas provide 24/7 care in a spacious home where guests reside in private bedrooms, each with a private bath and french doors that open to a beautiful back yard. For those who have homes and caregivers, the abode at home doula dispatch service dispatches abode doulas to provide extra support. Abode creates relationships with all guests, ensuring that they receive love, care, dignity and beauty during their precious last days. In addition, abode offers education and outreach through

What it reported doing in 2025

Abode teaches the art of contemplative living and dying while providing a beautiful home and compassionate care for those at end of life - at no charge. Abode's vision is that we live in a world where death is not feared, and we live fully until we die. Abode's guests are those in their last months, weeks or days of life and have no place to live and/or they need someone to provide them with proper care. The staff, volunteers and doulas provide 24/7 care in a spacious home where guests reside in private bedrooms, each with a private bath and french doors that open to a beautiful back yard. The staff connects with the guests, ensuring that they receive love, care and beauty during those precious last days, at no cost to the guests or their families. Abode's community education, outreach and end of life doula programs strive to change perspectives on death and dying. There is no other home like abode in san antonio. In fact, there are only three other similar homes in the entire state.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 92% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 86
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 28
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 80.5%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $7.11 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -51.3%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.34; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 11.9%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7.3% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 80.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $559K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $53K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 29/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 25/100.