Cooking for Community

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
850968956
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2021–2022
Forms available
Form 990 2020, Form 990-EZ 2022
Location
Falmouth, ME, USA
Phone
2078083014
Rating
30
Verdict
REVIEW
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$6,144
Expenses
$83,536
Assets
$0
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2022. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Ellie Linen Low (Director and President)
  • Caroline Teschke (Vice President and Director)

People named in this filing

  • Ellie Linen Low (Director and President)
  • Caroline Teschke (Vice President and Director)
  • Nancy Sun (Director and 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 2022. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Cooking for Community is a Portland, Maine-based grassroots organization formed as a Co-Vid 19 crisis response organization. We raise money to partner with local restaurants to prepare nourishing meals for people in need of food, using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. We engage with social service agencies to get the food where it is most needed.

What it reported doing in 2022

Cooking for Community raises money in order to partner with restaurants to provide healthy and nutritious meals to those most in need. Our reach into the community has been significant. We are an all-volunteer organization, with countless hours logged by a dedicated team of professionals who put this work into motion. As a result, we keep our overhead to near-nothing with over 97% of monies raised going directly to programming. We bring together restaurants, social service agencies, local government, foundations, businesses and coalition groups to create a network of over 40 partnering organizations. Consequently we have been able to serve delicious and nutritious meals to our neighbors who are often most at risk: the elderly, the unsheltered, immigrants, low income. We have continued to expand the network of restaurants and social service agencies that we work with as well as our geographic reach. During the past fiscal year, C4C stopped actively raising money. In furtherance of our charitable exempt purposes, all remaining funds were disbursed to Amistad Maine and to Gateway Community Services, two 501(c)3 charitable organizations in the Portland, Maine area. Both these organizations used the funds in direct support of food preparation and distribution to the communities that they serve. C4C is ceasing all further operations.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

REVIEW - The filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 0
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Sustainability: 8
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
  • Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1,259.6%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -200% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -133.4% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -114% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 9 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2021 to 2022
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 12 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 12 filed related-organization links
  • 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: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 2/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.