Colten Foster Memorial Fund

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
831190963
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021
Location
Basehor, KS, USA
Phone
9133348405
Rating
67
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Alliance/Advocacy Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$43,615
Expenses
$27,691
Assets
$137,361
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Gina Foster (Director)
  • Brandy Burch (Treasurer)
  • Hunter Foster (Director)

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

The Colten Foster Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit that was formed after the death of our 19 year old son to suicide on June 18th 2018. His death blindsided his family and friends. He never showed signs of mental illness. The foundation was formed because we do not want anyone else to suffer from this devastating loss, nor do we want others struggling with mental illness or suicidal ideation to suffer in silence. Our mission is to bring awareness about mental illness and suicide prevention as well as promoting mental wellness and resiliency to youth in our community.

What it reported doing in 2025

Since the foundations inception in 2018 We have provided 19,700 in scholarships to Basehor-Linwood high school seniors to attend trade, tech or vocational school as this was the path Colten had chosen. He was training to be an electrician. We will be providing three 1,500 scholarships for seniors, two 500 for juniors this year. This year we will also be offering a 500 scholarship to a sophomore who will be doing trade school next year. We provide financial assistance annually to assist two teens in attending Young Life summer camp, this expense is 800 per teen. We supported a mental health garden and dog park build in honor of a life lost too soon to mental health and a single mom who worked as the animal control officer in the Basehor Linwood Community. We support their annual Sporting Clay Tournament fundraiser and this year supported the math club. We have donated a selection of books about understanding emotions and mental health to the 4 elementary schools in the USD 458 school district. The foundation provides educational training opportunities for school district staff, youth leaders and mentors in the communIty to empower them with knowledge and resources to be prepared to handle the ever increasing mental health challenges and needs of youth in our community. This past year we sent 11 people including school district staff & youth leaders to Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training ASIST, a two day workshop for caregivers who want to feel more comfortable, confident and competent in helping to prevent the immediate risk of suicide. We are extending the training opportunities to include first responders in our community. The foundation partnered with Basehor Parents in Action to bring the Speak Up Foundation to BLHS to provide education about mental illness, suicide awareness and mental health to staff and students. We attend local events to provide resources and educational material about suicide prevention and mental health. We continue to seek opportunities to provide education and support about mental health and fight to end the stigma against mental illness.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 93% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 79% for direct work, and 21% for 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: 70
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 37
  • Sustainability: 68
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 65.9%; rating input score 66
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 33.3%; rating input score 33; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • 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: 36.5%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.96; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 27.3% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 23.3% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 65.9% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 1 of 3 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $28K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 42 of 43 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 33/100.
  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 52/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 58/100.