Children of the Hills

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
471453039
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2014
Location
Snohomish, WA, USA
Phone
3605405411
Rating
63
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$239,389
Expenses
$196,296
Assets
$68,672
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • VERNON W MILLER (PRESIDENT, DIRECTOR)

People named in this filing

  • VERNON W MILLER (PRESIDENT, DIRECTOR)
  • ARNOLD I MILLER (SECRETARY)
  • TOMAS ACOSTA (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. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Children of the Hills (CoH) is bringing life transforming changes to the tribal community living in the Hills of Bangladesh. Most of these people are illiterate and ill equipped to adapt to the rapidly changing world, so CoH has been supporting the education program of the Bangladesh Tribal Association of Baptist Churches (BTABC). The majority of 2025 CoH grants were focused on the operation and maintenance of the BTABC education program for 2400 children. CoH supported an education program that is offering schools for children in grades 1 to 10, we supported student hostels that enabled children to live near to a school, and we supported Primer schools to teach adults to read in their mother tongue. In addition, CoH supported youth camps, a women's micro loan program and tree farms that will provide future financial support for tribal education.

What it reported doing in 2025

Sponsor a Student Grant - Children of the Hills established a sponsorship program in 2019 for at-risk students. Many of the tribal students who live in the Hostels and attend a local government school come from families who spend 90% of their family income on food for the family. These families have little funds for the education of their children and cannot afford to keep their children in the BTABC's heavily subsidized Hostels. The sponsorship program is providing a small amount of money to keep the poorest of the student in school. This program was established with the understanding that Children of the Hills is working in partnership with parents of the students. Both parties pay a portion of the student's educational and living expenses. In 2025, this grant enabled 52 students to remain in school.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 76
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 24
  • Sustainability: 55
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 78.7%; rating input score 79
  • Program expense ratio: 96%; rating input score 96
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Limited
    • Conducts field audits: Limited
    • May suspend future funding: Limited
    • Requires financial reports: Pass
    • Conducts site visits: Limited
    • Requires grant agreements: Limited
    • May require repayment: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 91.8%; rating input score 92; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • 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: 18%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 19; 19th 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: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 8.6% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 78.7% of revenue deployed · 96% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 3 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 7 filed program accomplishments · $188K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 42 of 43 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
  • 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.