Foster Advocates
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 825411160
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2021–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- St Paul, MN, USA
- Phone
- 2184150332
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $976,710
- Expenses
- $902,732
- Assets
- $545,335
- Liabilities
- $81,840
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- Ariana Chamoun (Executive Dir.): $96,454 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Foster Advocates is not just our name it's what we do. We foster advocacy, policy change, and organizing by partnering with Fosters and impacted communities. We envision a Minnesota where every person involved in Minnesota's foster care system has the same access to opportunities and outcomes as their non-foster peers. We envision a Minnesota where Foster voices are respected and our community expertise is sought in every aspect of the child welfare system.
What it reported doing in 2024
This year we successfully organized with our community to address a $5 million funding gap for the Fostering Independence Grant (FIG) in the 2024-25 academic year. Our MN Promise campaign continued, where we hosted our final listening sessions, began data analysis and evaluation, hosted feedback sessions with participants, and initial drafting of the full report. Foster Advocates plans to publicly release the full Minnesota Promise Report, a comprehensive vision for systems-change led by and for Fosters, in 2025. Our Community Board finished its third year, and we expanded our MN Promise Committee to include more participants from our listening sessions. Additionally, we launched our Foster specific college pilot model, to increase support at colleges, and ensure success for MN Fosters in higher education. There is much to be done to ensure Minnesota meets its promise to all Fosters, and we are making significant progress on that thanks to our Foster leaders.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 64
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 83
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 64.4%; rating input score 64
- Program expense ratio: 69.6%; rating input score 70
- Fundraising efficiency: $12.6 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.6%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.6; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.15; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10.7%; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 28.3% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 27.1% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 12.2% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 64.4% of revenue deployed · 69.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $628K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $96K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 45/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 56/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 36/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 35/100.