Friends of the Philando Castile Peace Garden
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 921005599
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2022
- Location
- Falcon Heights, MN, USA
- Phone
- 6517926558
- Rating
- 62
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Support N.E.C.
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $70,608
- Expenses
- $35,000
- Assets
- $150,919
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
People named in this filing
- Susan Gehrz (Past Chair)
- Valerie Castile (Board Vice Chair)
- Damon Anderson (Board 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 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of the Friends of Philando Castile Peace Garden is to support the Peace Garden and inspire a new era of community healing, reconciliation, unity and transformation by creating a contemplative and peaceful gathering space at the site of a tragic death.
What it reported doing in 2025
The Peace Garden is located on land that is at the edge of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and is included in the Fair's Adopt a Garden Program. Commercial liability insurance is required for our continued use of the land for that purpose. The focus of 2025 activities was to further the major goals of the Peace Garden with three working groups: 1) Garden maintenance and sustainability; 2) Storytelling, Communications and Marketing; 3) Programs, education, events and evaluation. To sustainably fund the maintenance of the Peace Garden as a peaceful and contemplative space for all, we established a provisional fund to support ongoing expenses of the PGPC and developed a strategy for the establishment of a permanent endowment with Tod Herskovitz of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation. Ex-officio board members, Dr. Nora Hall and Karen Gray, write and produce a monthly newsletter, Seeds of Peace, and have a parallel website that includes information on activities of the Friends (https://www.givemn.org/organization/Friends-Of-The-Philando-Castile-Peace- Garden). In collaboration with Roseville Area Schools the Friends provided a summer reading program for children at our neighboring Amber Union affordable housing. The keynote events organized every year by Valerie Castile (Vice Chair) and family are the July 6 Candlelight Vigil at the Peace Garden, and the Unity Day picnic held on July 7 at the Falcon Heights City Hall. Both events were well attended.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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 program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 26
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 81
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 19.3%; rating input score 19
- Program expense ratio: 37.7%; rating input score 38
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 50.4%; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.31; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 61.2% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 35% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 68.3% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 19.3% of revenue deployed · 37.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $13K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 13 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 19/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 38/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.