Cabrillo Education Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
942976402
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Half Moon Bay, CA, USA
Phone
6502867811
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$309,915
Expenses
$415,604
Assets
$3,816,149
Liabilities
$10,085

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ALLAN SMITH (PRESIDENT/SE)

Highest reported compensation

  • CORRINE BUCHER (EXECUTIVE DI): $112,750 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Cef is serving as a student success innovation fund to promote new, creative and powerful initiatives to improve students' education in our community. It is an advocate for and funds high leverage programs that have well defined outcomes and can make "big impacts" for student success. In collaboration with coastside school districts, cef identifies clear goals, strategies, and resources required for each initiative to achieve results. There are several major themes for cef basic grant making at this time: - literacy (k-3) - college and career readiness (avid 6th - 12th grades, science, social and emotional well being) - learning and enrichment (innovation grants) grants in these areas have funded and promoted teacher professional development and informational libraries that significantly increase our students' reading proficiency by the end of third grade. Cef has also been able to expand the outcome based college and career readiness program (avid) from 6th through 12th grade. Cef lev

What it reported doing in 2025

Cef achievements for 2025 the cabrillo education foundation (cef) funded program services for 3,200 cabrillo unified school district students covering three vital education pillars: science, math, and college & career readiness. In addition to supporting critical school programs, cef also provided yearly teacher innovation grants and coastside futures student scholarships. Science programs: approximately 2000 students benefited from dedicated faculty-directed monthly collaboration time to assist district science teachers from 5th grade to 12th grade in becoming models and experts in next generation science standards. Cef partnered with the school district to provide 107,000 for a 5th grade science specialist position for the 9th year. With the support of cef, the 5th grade science teacher continued to teach 5th grade lab science to approximately 250 students at all four elementary schools. Math program: cef funding supported the 6th - 12th grade math teachers in a monthly collaboration, which was key to continue to align the new curriculum adoption. College & career readiness: cef funded the real life learning (rll) coordinator and program at half moon bay hs, which gives all high school students opportunities to explore career pathways through community service and work-based learning. Innovation grants: cef funded 11 innovation grants (1000 each) to teachers within the cusd schools. These grants allow teachers to think outside of their standard curriculum. For example, funding provides engaging materials for the 5th grade science curriculum, educational games & supplies to help develop basic stem skills, and a horse class for the students at pilarcitos, the cusd alternative high school. Coastside futures/scholarships: in 2025, cef continued its collaboration with college futures in the coastside futures initiative. College scholarships from 1,000 to 5,000 were granted to 15 under resourced students at half moon bay high school to further their education.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 47% for direct work, and 53% for grants.

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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 89
  • Accountability: 88
  • Sustainability: 36
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 75.7%; rating input score 76
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.98 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 97.6%; rating input score 98; 59th 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: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: -34.1%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.18; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 27.1%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -0.7% per year; rating input score 0; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 75.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $315K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $113K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • 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 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.