Childrens Hope Foster Family Agency

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
943089825
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Gridley, CA, USA
Phone
5308464955
Rating
71
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$11,322,958
Expenses
$11,484,792
Assets
$6,400,291
Liabilities
$1,797,689

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • BLANE SANNAR (PRESIDENT)
  • CRYSTAL CARTER (CEO IN TRAIN)

Highest reported compensation

  • BENJAMIN PAYNE (SECRETARY &): $222,106 total reported compensation
  • CHASE BROWN (CFO): $179,856 total reported compensation
  • HEATHER PAYNE (EXECUTIVE DI): $174,656 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Children's hope is a source of love and light, empowering individuals to create a life filled with purpose, hope and joy.

What it reported doing in 2024

In 2024, children's hope successfully identified, trained, and supported safe and loving resource family homes to provide both short and long-term care for 379 foster children and youth (clients) throughout California, resulting in 57,531 client days in care. The organization's dedicated social workers provided weekly in-home visits to each resource family, ensuring consistent support and individualized care for both clients and caregivers. Through these visits, the organization worked closely with clients to stabilize behaviors and foster environments grounded in love, empowering clients to build lives filled with purpose, hope, and joy. Efforts resulted in numerous successful reunifications with biological parents. Additionally, relationships between clients and resource parents were intentionally nurtured, often developing into permanent placements through adoption, legal guardianship, or long-term mentorships. The organization increased public awareness of the ongoing needs of foster clients, resulting in a measurable rise in community engagement and an increase in the number of resource parents committed to providing care for children in need.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 95% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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.
  • 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. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 72
  • Sustainability: 26
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 86.8%; rating input score 87
  • Program expense ratio: 86%; rating input score 86
  • Fundraising efficiency: $2.31 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 60%; rating input score 60; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • 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: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1.4%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.56; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.28; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.3%; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.5% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 86.8% of revenue deployed · 86% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $9.9M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $222K · 10 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 8/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 18/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 28/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 48/100.