Courage Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
813196323
IRS 990 coverage
2018–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021, Form 990-N 2016
Location
Encinitas, CA, USA
Phone
8589648683
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Educational Services and Schools - Other

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$238,554
Expenses
$278,169
Assets
$239,808
Liabilities
$5,554

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

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MARK DALTON DIVINE (CEO)
  • FRANK PODANY (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • David Weber (Director of Program Development/ Le): $90,000 total reported compensation
  • JONATHAN ATWATER (Treasurer): $80,000 total reported compensation
  • Sydney Elligton (Strategic Advisor/Coach): $34,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Courage Foundation's mission is to mitigate the impacts of post-traumatic stress through fostering post-traumatic growth.

What it reported doing in 2025

Veteran Integration Program (VIP): The VIP helps build the self-esteem of each participant, mitigates the impacts of PTS, and fosters post-traumatic growth by ensuring each participant leaves our program with a better understanding of self-regulation, daily living choices, and hope for the future. In 2025 19 veteran participants were enrolled in the cohort. Veterans received individualized one-on-one coaching for 12 months. By taking the time to reinforce this training over several months, veterans have the chance to receive close support throughout the ups and downs of their learning and application; this improves the long-term outcomes for lasting positive changes. A critical way VIP especially prevents mental health crises with early intervention is with the coaches being available to veterans at the time when they need help, while they are still in a manageable state catching problems before they become crises. If a veteran has an argument, gets bad news, or experiences anything that could trigger a backslide, they can text, call, or email the coach confident that they will receive a response very soon with an opportunity to implement their training real-time with the coach. This availability is the heart of peer-to-peer support that makes VIP uniquely complementary to traditional mental health services offered to veterans.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 85% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
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.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 77.7%; rating input score 78
  • Program expense ratio: 66.7%; rating input score 67
  • Fundraising efficiency: $4.95 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -16.6%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.86; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 73.3%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 30.6% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 77.7% of revenue deployed · 66.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $185K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $90K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 23 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2018 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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.

Key Signals

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

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 21/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 13/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 33/100.