Franconia Volunteer Fire Department

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
541245174
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Burke, VA, USA
Phone
7039715858
Rating
62
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$636,198
Expenses
$610,436
Assets
$5,339,931
Liabilities
$1,406,644

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Deborah R Volker (Vice President)
  • Jason Farrar (President)

People named in this filing

  • Deborah R Volker (Vice President)
  • Jason Farrar (President)
  • John Swanson (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. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Provide firefighting, rescue and emergency medical services to the Franconia community in Fairfax County, VA. Maintain Fire Station 5 and purchase emergency vehicles for Fire Stations 5 and 37. Provide volunteer firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians to supplement Fairfax County career fire and rescue personnel in responding to emergency calls and to staff medical safety stations at various community events.

What it reported doing in 2025

Depreciation Expenses: FVFD depreciated the building and various improvements over a period of 30 years, fire trucks and engines over a period of 12-20 years, ambulances over a period of 10 years, other service vehicles over a period of 10 years, leasehold improvements over a period of 20 years and furniture and other assets over a period of 5-20 years. At year-end 2025, FVFD had a vehicle fleet that included a 51% stake in a tower truck, 3 fire engines, 3 ambulances, brush truck, command utility and general utility. FVFD received $70,000 in grants from Fairfax County, VA to apply to principal balances on outstanding loans for the front-line engine at Station 5 and front-line ambulance for Station 37. FVFD took delivery of a new front-line fire engine for Station 5 in the summer of 2025; rotated the older front-line engine at Station 5 to the frontline engine at 37; rotated the frontline engine from station 37 to a ready reserve engine based at station 5; and donated the old ready reserve engine to Franklin, WV. To purchase the new engine, FVFD signed a 10-year loan with First National Bank of PA for $940,000 in June of 2025. FVFD also donated the ready reserve ambulance at Station 37 to Ukraine and reduced the fleet from 2 to 1 ready reserve ambulance. For building capital improvements, FVFD took delivery of new tables and chairs for the bingo hall. In December, FVFD signed a contract with Singer EVI to procure new stainless steel cabinets and countertops for the career kitchen, with installation expected to occur in early 2026.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 65% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

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

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 70
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 0
  • Sustainability: 58
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 75.6%; rating input score 76
  • Program expense ratio: 78.8%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $4.56 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th 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: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 8.75; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.26; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 6.9% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -5.4% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 75.6% of revenue deployed · 78.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 0 of 9 board members independent · 0 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $461K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 9 people listed
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $140K reported
  • Consistency: 20 of 22 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
  • 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 6 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 14/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 42/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Functional expense sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part IX AllOtherExpenses column sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 21/100.