Chafong Lee Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 823270278
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2022–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- Sanger, CA, United States
- Phone
- (559) 618-3424
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Education N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $86,926
- Expenses
- $89,556
- Assets
- $36,742
- Liabilities
- $47,007
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- CHAFONG LEE (President)
People named in this filing
- CHAFONG LEE (President)
- BOBBY CHA LEE (Secretary)
- PATA VANG (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Chafong Lee Foundation (CFLF) would like to help advance international dialogue, understanding, and respect through cultural activities in the United States to create a space for cultural preservation. CFLF would like to accomplish this mission through grants for the Hmong community that supports scholars, youth sports and cultural arts.
What it reported doing in 2024
The organization has obtained federal exemption and its goals are to preserve, restore and educate the public about hmong history; to teach the younger generation about the hmong cultural, art and music; and, to provide hmong students with scholarships and grants for higher education. The foundation has made improvements to leased property in order to provide a hmong museum and display hmong artifacts, crafts and its many rich history. The property will be available for rent to provide classes and cultural study of hmong arts and crafts.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent revenue detail to tell how this nonprofit funds its work.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 82% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 33
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 83.9%; rating input score 84
- Program expense ratio: 81.5%; rating input score 81
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.41; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.28; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -8.1% per year; rating input score 0; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.9% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 8 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 83.9% of revenue deployed · 81.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $73K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 26/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 4/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.