Friends of the Shelter Inc Dba Better Together Animal Alliance
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 943071245
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Ponderay, ID, USA
- Phone
- 2082657297
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Animal Protection and Welfare
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,836,147
- Expenses
- $2,605,116
- Assets
- $6,854,879
- Liabilities
- $720,836
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Mark Hon (President)
- Seth Levy (Vice President)
Highest reported compensation
- Mandy Evans (Executive Dir.): $123,889 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 create and support meaningful connections by enhancing the lives of dogs, cats and the people in our community who love them.
What it reported doing in 2025
We achieve our mission by providing a safe temporary home for animals when no other alternatives exist and by offering programs that help keep people and pets together whenever possible. We provide sheltering services for more than 1,600 dogs and cats annually, including owner-surrendered and stray animals. All animals receive veterinary care, including wellness exams, vaccinations, microchipping, and spay/neuter services prior to adoption. We also help reunite lost pets with their owners.Our community outreach programs include a pet food bank, helpline, low-cost spay/neuter services for publicly owned animals and community cats, door-to-door pet support, and an online pet re-homing program. In 2025, our programs served more than 8,000 people and pets.Friends of the Shelter, Inc. doing business as Better Together Animal Alliance founded Home To Home, an online re-homing program that operates under our umbrella and is now used by more than 180 animal shelters across the United States and Canada. The program provides communities with an alternative to shelter surrender and helps keep pets in homes.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 87% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - 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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 56
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 61.3%; rating input score 61
- Program expense ratio: 85.5%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $15.66 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 8.1%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.63; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.8%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 61.3% of revenue deployed · 85.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $124K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 51/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 51/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 58/100.