Cultivating Place Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
331665277
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2024
Location
Chico, CA, USA
Phone
5305202942
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Radio

Reported finances

Revenue
$250,786
Expenses
$251,288
Assets
$14,498
Liabilities
$15,000

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • JENNIFER JEWEL (EXECUTVE DIRECTOR): $39,996 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

To elevate and expand the way our world thinks & talks about gardening and gardeners through public radio programs, podcasts, books, other writing, public speaking, film documentary series, and public educational events, in order to grow a world where gardeners/stewards/growers and gardens/cultivated places are valued as powerful intersectional agents and spaces of positive growth and change in our world.

What it reported doing in 2025

Cultivating place community advocacy: through up to 30 in-person and virtual speaking events to audiences around the u.s. Annually, community gatherings for recorded-live podcast interviews (on average 6 annually), and monthly online gatherings of gardeners, we share information, research, experience, and thereby engage, educate, encourage, and empower gardeners to cultivate their places with ever-greater careecologically, socially, culturally, economically, and spiritually.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 20
  • Growth: NotEnoughData

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 93.9%; rating input score 94
  • Program expense ratio: 93.4%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

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: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -0.2%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.06; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.03; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 15.9%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: Limited
  • Asset growth: Limited

Details

  • Where the money goes: 93.9% of revenue deployed · 93.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $235K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $40K · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 17 of 17 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 34/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 5/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 3/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.