Garden Club of Houston
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 760008423
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2009
- Location
- Houston, TX, USA
- Phone
- 7136282953
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Garden Club, Horticultural Program
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $839,305
- Expenses
- $763,218
- Assets
- $1,148,442
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Judy Lee (President)
- Ruthie Kelly (1st Vice President)
- Mary Sommer Pyne (2nd Vice President)
- Estelle Lozmack (Immediate Past President)
People named in this filing
- Judy Lee (President)
- Ruthie Kelly (1st Vice President)
- Mary Sommer Pyne (2nd Vice President)
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 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Club's mission is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening and to protect the quality of the environment through programs and action in the fields of education, conservation, and civic improvement.
What it reported doing in 2024
Bulb & Plant Mart: Each year the Garden Club of Houston gathers the best bulbs and plants suitable for our area and makes them available to the public. During this event, experts are provided to give talks open to the public and booklets are distributed describing the planting, care and maintenance of bulbs and plants. All active members volunteer for this event and are present to answer questions and provide educational information. Approximately 1,000 volunteer hours are donated to this event.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 40% for direct work, 56% for grants, and 4% for affiliated organizations.
The verdict
STRONG - 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: 93
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 64
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 91.5%; rating input score 91
- Program expense ratio: 95.7%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: $245.73 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 82.3%; rating input score 82; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- 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: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: 9.1%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.5; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 91.5% of revenue deployed · 95.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $730K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
- Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 12 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 12 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 59/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 56/100.