Fortitude Community Farm School
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 933630197
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2024–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2023
- Location
- Bakersfield, CA, USA
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Agricultural Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $71,771
- Expenses
- $84,276
- Assets
- $9,905
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mary Jean Russell (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Mary Jean Russell (Vice President)
- Marah Meek (Secretary)
- Nick Heinlein (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of Fortitude Community Farm School is to provide farming education.
What it reported doing in 2024
Fortitude Community Farm School provided internships to 22 students from Bakersfield College. Interns learned the skills needed to manage a successful farm. Students followed the process from preparing the land selecting and planting a crop cultivation harvest packaging and selling to the community at a public farmers market to educational community partners like the Kern County Superintendent of Schools and local restaurants. The Farm School also offered classes to the general public regarding beginning gardening composting beginning tomatoes making kimchi and meditation.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 79% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 89
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 22
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 93.6%; rating input score 94
- Program expense ratio: 79.7%; rating input score 80
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -17.4%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.12; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- Where the money goes: 93.6% of revenue deployed · 79.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $67K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 12/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.