Friends of Pine Grove Zoo
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 411949216
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Little Falls, MN, USA
- Phone
- 3206165595
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Wildlife Preservation, Protection
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $785,377
- Expenses
- $784,766
- Assets
- $311,866
- Liabilities
- $63,951
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JERRY LOCHNER (PRESIDENT)
- PAUL KAPSNER (VICE PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- MARNITA VAN HOECKE (ZOO DIRECTOR, EX OFFICIO): $64,800 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To promote environmental education and conservation while creating a progressive zoological park in central Minnesota.
What it reported doing in 2025
The pine grove zoo is a small zoo that is part of a community of approximately 8,300 people. Even though we are small in size, the impact we have in the community and surrounding communities is vast. One way this is evident is in our thriving educational programs. The number of educational programs we offer is modest but the amount of information we are able to convey through our programs are immense and far reaching. Our programs are designed to connect with a variety of people of all ages, interests, and backgrounds thru interactive, educational, and fun activities. Visitors to the pine grove zoo thru admissions and events totaled 22,446 for the 2025 season. These visitors came from 203 cities in Minnesota, 50 states, and 5 countries. Our on site self-guided and guided tours provided interactive, educational programming for 2,411 people from cities throughout central Minnesota. On-site education programs such as operant training demonstrations; zookeeper and enrichment presentations; drew over 1,788 people.we were able to have our zoo gone wild in which we had 418 in attendance. In october, we had our first annual boofest with 1,285 in attendance.the volunteer efforts of pine grove zoo were supported by 46 volunteers over the year and those volunteers logged 889 hours.
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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 74
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 78
- Sustainability: 28
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 84.3%; rating input score 84
- Program expense ratio: 80.9%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 25th 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: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 0.1%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.4; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.3%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 6.8% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 13.6% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 84.3% of revenue deployed · 80.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $635K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $65K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 31/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 25/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.