Bj's Restaurants Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
204165851
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Huntington Beach, CA, USA
Phone
7145002400
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fund Raising and Fund Distribution

Reported finances

Revenue
$333,920
Expenses
$312,794
Assets
$72,625
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • LYLE D TICK (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • ROBERT B DELIEMA (PRESIDENT & CHAIRMAN)

People named in this filing

  • LYLE D TICK (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • RANA G SCHIRMER (SECRETARY)
  • ROBERT B DELIEMA (PRESIDENT & CHAIRMAN)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

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

Overview

Mission

The bj's restaurant foundation is dedicated to support charities benefiting children's healthcare and education, with primary focus on the cystic fibrosis foundation.

What it reported doing in 2025

The bj's restaurants foundation offers support for our team members' community volunteering efforts through a program called tasc (team action to support communities) force. Restaurant team members volunteer to support community events such as helping to paint a house for nearby seniors, assisting in community clean up campaigns, working at community blood drives, helping with special olympics programs, building houses with habitat for humanity, supporting local food banks, or volunteering at marathons and other charitable fundraisers. In support of tasc force team members' volunteerism, the foundation writes checks to more than 100 charities each year. In just its first year, the tasc force program was honored to receive the prestigious restaurant neighbor award from the national restaurant association. This award recognizes the most community-minded restaurant chain in the nation. The bj's restaurants foundation has won that same award from the state of California twice through the years.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 88% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 100% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 70
  • Sustainability: 44
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 93.4%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 99.7%; rating input score 100
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 54%; rating input score 54; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • 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: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • 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: 6.3%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.23; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 17% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 16.1% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -12.6% per year; rating input score 0; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 93.4% of revenue deployed · 99.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $312K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 18 of 19 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 10 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 11 filed related-organization links
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 54/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.