Filter of Hope
Legal name: Filter of Hope Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 371751688
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Tuscaloosa, AL, United States
- Phone
- 2058871184
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $12,823,069
- Expenses
- $10,497,197
- Assets
- $9,634,894
- Liabilities
- $2,430,030
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- BART SMELLEY (FOUNDER/BOAR): $283,272 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Bringing clean water and the gospel of Jesus Christ to families worldwide in desperate need of both through manufacturing and distributing life-saving water filters and sharing the gospel in partnership with local churches and ministries. Our local church partners prepare the neighborhoods and families your team will visit. Trip participants are divided into small groups and paired with a translator and a representative from the church to visit homes. You’ll provide families with a water filter, and an opportunity to hear how much God loves them. We also provide New Testaments in their native language for your team to give to each family. Traveling with Filter of Hope is part humanitarian project and part mission trip. You can bring clean drinking water and the gospel to families in desperate need of both. Our trips are affordable, safe, and life-changing! We create custom mission...
What it reported doing in 2025
Filter of hope relies on funding from individuals, businesses, churches and foundations to fulfill its mission. Filter of hope carries out its ministry through two primary strategies. First, the ministry mobilizes thousands of college students and church members each year from across the united states on short-term mission trips throughout latin america. With 30 established ministry bases, filter of hope partners with local churches to ensure long-term sustainability, follow-up, and discipleship for new believers. Second, filter of hope works with indigenous missionaries and church planters to bring clean water and the gospel to unreached people groups in africa, the middle east, and south asia, reaching remote communities where most have never heard the name of jesus. Every water filter distribution is accompanied by a clear presentation of the gospel, which is central to the filter of hope's evangelism, discipleship and church planting strategy.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 97% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 74
- Accountability: 85
- Sustainability: 56
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 77.7%; rating input score 78
- Program expense ratio: 94.5%; rating input score 94
- Fundraising efficiency: $71.41 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Pass
- 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: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 14th 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: 18.1%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.92; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.25; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.7%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 22.6% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 22.1% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 27.6% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 77.7% of revenue deployed · 94.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 6 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $9.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $283K · 6 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2025
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.