Creating a Family

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
270679437
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2011
Location
Brevard, NC, USA
Phone
8288628200
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Adoption

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$747,050
Expenses
$596,867
Assets
$965,060
Liabilities
$121,094

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Dawn Davenport (Executive Director, Board Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Dawn Davenport (Executive Director, Board Director): $95,557 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Foster, kinship and adoptive parents need information because our children often struggle with emotional and educational challenges that can make parenting hard. It is important that this information be expert-based and trauma-informed rather than the anecdotal sharing that often takes place. The MISSION of Creating a Family is to do just that - to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster and kinship parents and the professionals who support them by creating engaging, expert-based and trauma-informed resources and training. We create resources for families raising kids who have experienced the trauma of neglect, abuse and prenatal exposure. Our resources embrace all the current media in order to fit the learning style and time availability of busy parents. In addition to education, we know first-hand the power of support and being surrounded by others who understand your experience. As such, we run a large online support group for adoptive, foster and kinship families.

What it reported doing in 2024

Creating a Family's Interactive Training and Support Curriculum for Foster, Adoptive & Kinship Families was designed to make it easy for organizations to run engaging, high-quality support groups (in-person or online). Our curriculum is a turnkey resource developed to help facilitators provide support and training while building community, reducing caregiver stress, and helping caregivers feel more confident in parenting children exposed to trauma. In 2020, Creating a Family worked to create, pilot and test the new Interactive Training & Support for Foster/Adoptive/Kinship Families Subscription Service. Ten curricula were developed in 2020 and offered to the public in 2021. During 2021 an additional 10 curricula were developed. In 2022, 5 more curricula were developed. In 2023 we launched a new website to house our Curriculum, making it more accessible and user friendly to organizations running support groups for foster, adoptive and kinship families. The Interactive Training & Support Curricula provides resources and wraparound services with the goal of increasing the number of parent support groups available to families by making it easier to facilitate and maintain high-quality groups where parents develop social connections, reduce stress, and feel more confident in parenting children exposed to trauma. Each curriculum includes a video, facilitator guide, and handouts. The wraparound subscription service has initial facilitator training for online or in-person groups, access to participant evaluations, and access to a curriculum library that includes 25 topics for foster, adoptive, and kinship parents. In 2024, we began developing the Kinship Interactive Training and Support curriculum which is a 10.5 hour curriculum package designed to provide support and training for kinship caregivers raising children in their home.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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

STRONG - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 60
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 60
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 61.3%; rating input score 61
  • Program expense ratio: 74.2%; rating input score 74
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.79 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 20.1%; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.62; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.13; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16%; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 26.7% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 18% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 27% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 61.3% of revenue deployed · 74.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 11 of 11 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 8 filed program accomplishments · $443K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $96K · 13 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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 12/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 21/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.