Cape Fear Garden Club Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 581822023
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2016
- Location
- Wilmington, NC, USA
- Phone
- 9106860888
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Garden Club, Horticultural Program
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $202,759
- Expenses
- $192,551
- Assets
- $203,193
- Liabilities
- $2,148
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Delores Hawes (President)
- Sandy Cyphers (1st Vice President)
- Elizabeth Trice (2nd Vice President)
- Meredith Lewis (3rd Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Delores Hawes (President)
- Sandy Cyphers (1st Vice President)
- Elizabeth Trice (2nd Vice President)
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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To stimulate knowledge and the love of gardening; to study in all its aspects, the art of gardening, particularly horticulture, and to cooperate with other agencies furthering such interests; to encourage environmental improvement through civic development, beautification, restoration, and to aid in the protection and conservation of our native trees, plants, and birds; and to provide a non-profit, philanthropic, and educational association for the members.
What it reported doing in 2024
Battery Island Bird Island Cruise. All profit from the annual Battery Island Cruise are donated to Audubon. This is an educational cruise narrated by an Audubon biologist, that informs of migratory birds and views a globally important bird nesting habitat.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 71% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 46% for direct work, 52% for grants, and 2% for affiliated organizations.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 89
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 70
- Sustainability: 50
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 91.3%; rating input score 91
- Program expense ratio: 96%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: $17.38 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 19.7%; rating input score 20; 38th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 29
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.06; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.7% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 91.3% of revenue deployed · 96% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 59 of 59 board members independent · 2 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $185K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 25 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 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 — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 20/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 6 not reported.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 54/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 51/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 42/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.