Fortify Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
843953586
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2020
Location
Columbia, SC, USA
Phone
8036153037
Rating
68
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,899,754
Expenses
$503,794
Assets
$6,670,949
Liabilities
$1,293,586

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

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Edward Earwood (President)
  • Dan Handford (Vice President/Secretary)
  • Brandon Allen (Executive Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Brandon Allen (Executive Director): $83,100 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Fortify Foundation is organized and operated to provide greater opportunity and wider accessibility to Christian education, as well as to improve and broaden the impact of existing Christian schools. The Foundation accomplishes its mission by helping Christian schools raise general and specific endowments and scholarships. The Foundation encourages and facilitates major and planned gifts benefiting each school's fund held and managed by the Foundation. Additionally, the Foundation has also taken on a capital campaign division to help schools utilize their immediate focus on current needs and build out a long-term financial strategy.

What it reported doing in 2024

In 2024, Fortify Foundation continued to grow and developed a network of relationships with Christian schools. The Foundation participated in several regional / national conferences to further extend its reach and exposure to Christian schools. Through the addition of a capital campaign division, we also educated schools in how capital campaigns can be a great catalyst to launch and build endowment funds.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 79% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 40
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 79
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 31.5%; rating input score 32
  • Program expense ratio: 65.8%; rating input score 66
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 12th 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 73.5%; rating input score 97; 97th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 13.24; rating input score 94; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.19; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16.5%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 38.2% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 51.4% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 31.5% of revenue deployed · 65.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $331K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $83K · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 27 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 32/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 20/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 32/100.