Garden City Harvest Inc

What it reported doing in 2025

Garden city harvest was established in 1996 as the community's proactive solution to food insecurity to ensure people could meet their basic needs for healthy, nutrient-rich food. The farming and gardening nonprofit currently manages 22 farms, community gardens, and school gardens throughout missoula, Montana. Its mission is to plant seeds and grow together to create a healthy community. The mission is enacted through four programs on which more than 20,000 community members rely each year. The community gardens program offers people the opportunity to affordably grow food to feed their own families. Roughly 65% of participants live in low-income households where budgets are tight. Garden city harvest provides the individual garden plots, tools, water, compost, and the knowledge and guidance of others to ensure gardeners' success. Each year, the organization rents 435 garden plots at 11 garden locations, primarily in neighborhoods where food insecurity is greatest. Plot rental is offered on a sliding scale based on household income. Garden city harvest's farm to school program provides experiential, hands-on learning opportunities to k-12 students, encouraging them to explore connections between farming and the food they eat. Farm to school staff members manage eight elementary school gardens, offer in-class lessons during the school year, and educational farm field trips and garden lessons during the growing season. This program serves roughly 5,000 students per year. The neighborhood farms program grows tons of fresh produce at four urban farms, making it accessible to everyone in the community. Garden city harvest uses its well-established local food distribution network with over a dozen partner agencies to get this food to missoula's most vulnerable citizens. Sustainable farming practices are adhered to at all of its sites, promoting soil health and lessening the effects of climate change. Garden city harvest's youth development program offers employment and volunteer opportunities for roughly 25-30 teens annually at the youth farm. There, teens who are struggling with overwhelming personal challenges learn job and life skills, build meaningful relationships with others, and gain self-confidence. Through this work, they gain the tools to redefine themselves. Through this work, we meet people where they are, making fresh, healthy produce accessible and affordable to everyone. We operate several farm stands that serve seniors and low-income families, selling fresh produce at deeply discounted prices. We offer sliding scale pricing (based on household income) for all of our services. Our volunteer for veggies program is an opportunity to learn sustainable farming by working alongside our staff and receiving vegetables in return. In addition, this work brings people together and connects them in simple yet meaningful ways. All of this combines to make missoula a healthier, more connected community.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 91.6%; rating input score 92
• Program expense ratio: 81.1%; rating input score 81
• Fundraising efficiency: $5.01 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 16; 16th 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; 64th 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: Pass
  • 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: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -10%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.26; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 6.9%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 10.6% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings