Desert Trails Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 900987277
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Jul 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Adelanto, CA, USA
- Phone
- 7605307680
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Christianity
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,951,118
- Expenses
- $7,759,071
- Assets
- $20,912,895
- Liabilities
- $3,050,157
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- HARDY BLACK (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- DEBRA TARVER (EXECUTIVE DI): $390,591 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of desert trails preparatory academy is to provide students from diverse cultures and backgrounds with a classical education in a nurturing environment where students and parents alike feel safe, valued, and involved.
What it reported doing in 2024
The mission of desert trails preparatory academy is to provide students from diverse cultures and backgrounds with a classical education in a nurturing environment where students and parents alike feel safe, valued, and involved.currently serving 500 students in kindergarten through sixth grade
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 90% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 37
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 74.9%; rating input score 75
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- 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: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -30.4%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.7; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9.5% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.7% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.7% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 74.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $391K · 6 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2013 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: 2 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 4/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 51/100.
- Review — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization could not be resolved against the register, so the check is unfinished.