CaringBridge

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
421529394
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2025
Location
Bloomington, MN, USA
Phone
6514527940
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Health, General and Financing

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$10,634,739
Expenses
$10,715,400
Assets
$5,445,815
Liabilities
$1,034,614

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

Leadership & pay

25 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Tia Newcomer (CEO)
  • Stephanie SchmidPresident (and Incoming Interim CEO (Oct-Dec))
  • Mark Phillips (Vice President of Technology)

Highest reported compensation

  • Tia Newcomer (CEO): $455,255 total reported compensation
  • Stephanie SchmidPresident (and Incoming Interim CEO (Oct-Dec)): $264,361 total reported compensation
  • Tom Booth (Chief Information Officer): $231,010 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

CaringBridge has a single vision: a world where no one goes through a health journey alone. In order to turn this vision into reality, we've made it our mission to build bridges of care and communication providing love and support on a health journey.

What it reported doing in 2025

CaringBridge is a nonprofit health platform that surrounds families with support during a health journey. As a donor-supported nonprofit founded in 1997, the organization offers tools to share and document a health journey, simplify care coordination, and connect caregivers with a supportive community. Feelings of being overwhelmed, isolated, and lonely are prevalent among family caregivers and the loved ones they support on a health journey. By building social support and improving emotional health, CaringBridge addresses those needs, helping people come together in support of healing. (Continued on Schedule O) In 2025, CaringBridge supported 41,061 pages, delivering hope and healing to caregivers and their loved ones they support on a health journey.2/3 of CaringBridge family caregivers receive a matched offer of support within 24 hours of their request.Approximately 57% of pages are started for a cancer health journey; the highest of any health condition is breast cancer (13%).75% of pages result in a positive outcome, from remission to recovery.Emotional and Social Support:13.4 million posts, reactions, comments and tributes annually647,335 AMP heart reactions a month1 million average comments and reactions per month1500 messages per hourFinancial Support:$609,720 GoFundMe average monthly dollars raised for patients318 average gift cards delivered monthly to patients In 2025 CaringBridge had 119,786 donors and 142,866 gifts.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 97% 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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - 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: 69
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 19
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 75.2%; rating input score 75
  • Program expense ratio: 74.4%; rating input score 74
  • Fundraising efficiency: $8.1 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -0.8%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.51; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.19; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 18.9%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.5% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 1.6% per year; rating input score 100; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 75.2% of revenue deployed · 74.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $455K · 25 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $469K reported
  • Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 9 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 27/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.