Giving Compass Network Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
851311683
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2021
Location
Union, WA, USA
Phone
2062505160
Rating
69
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Philanthropy, Charity, Voluntarism Promotion

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,754,619
Expenses
$2,806,890
Assets
$2,562,578
Liabilities
$43,985

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Dale Pfiefer (CEO)
  • Jacqui Gray (Vice President, Marketing)

Highest reported compensation

  • Dale Pfiefer (CEO): $284,600 total reported compensation
  • Brandolon Barnett (Head of Innovation and Philanthropy): $216,475 total reported compensation
  • Joseph Alonso (Director of Engineering): $202,850 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Giving Compass aims to increase the impact of giving through the development of a set of programs and tools that allow a giver to focus their resources on social issues and charities that are meaningful to them and also are central to delivering on their giving goals.

What it reported doing in 2024

Knowledge Hub - this program includes a substantial variety of components that are designed to help funders accomplish several objectives with respect to charitable giving or grantmaking, including discovering charitable causes that are particularly important to them; understanding the landscape of those causes and, learning how to structure giving programs for maximum charitable impact. Giving Compass programs are primarily directed at individual donors, however it also is accessible to charities that receive gifts and grants and to financial, legal, and other advisors who help donors execute their giving and investment strategies. The program is intended to both increase the effectiveness of giving and also increase the level of donations provided and engagement a donor has with a charitable cause who previously felt that they did not know enough about the cause they are interested in. The primary venue is the Companys website, which is updated daily and provides curated articles, a directry of capacity-building resources, listing of current learning events, issue-specific content related to current issues philanthropy is focused on, a dataset of potential action opportunities for donors who wish to give, use their voice to advocate or volunteer for. The website connects donors with existing issue-specific funds operated by community foundations and other intermediaries that may allow new funders to have immediate and meaningful impact. All resources on the website are provided free of charge to end users.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 86
  • Transparency & Controls: 59
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 33
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 90.6%; rating input score 91
  • Program expense ratio: 88.9%; rating input score 89
  • Fundraising efficiency: $18.03 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 4th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 16th 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: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1.9%; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.91; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 41.7%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -12% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -28.4% per year; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -1.1% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 90.6% of revenue deployed · 88.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $285K · 12 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $160K reported
  • Consistency: 24 of 25 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 56/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 27/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 34/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 2/100.