Greenwood County First Steps to School Readiness Partnership

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
571097815
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2009
Location
Greenwood, SC, USA
Phone
8643884102
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$414,555
Expenses
$394,727
Assets
$52,191
Liabilities
$21,868

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

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • SANTASHA SHIPMAN (EXECUTIVE DI): $77,800 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Section 59-152-10 of the South Carolina code established the South Carolina first steps to school readiness program, which is a comprehensive, results- oriented initiative for improving early childhood development by providing, through local partnerships, public and private funds, and support for high-quality early childhood development and education services for children by providing support for their families' efforts toward enabling their children to reach school ready to succeed. Our mission is that every South Carolina child will arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed.

What it reported doing in 2024

Parenting support: parents as teachers-a parent educator visits your home and provides guidance and resources to enable you to support your child's development and school readiness. Pat aims to increase your knowledge of early childhood development and improve parenting practices, provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues, prevent child abuse and neglect, and increase children's school readiness and school success. Fatherhood initiative-the real fathers are dads fatherhood initiative works to include the entire family. The father has been the missing component for many years with our programs, and we have found the missing component. By using the holistic approach and working with the entire family, we are starting to see change happen. Other agencies and partners in our community are starting to see change and want to be a part of this initiative. Strengthening families program-an internationally recognized parenting and family strengthening program that focus on parenting skills, children's social skills and family life skills training. This 14-session program is specifically designed for high-risk and general population families.

Operating model

Revenue model
Affiliate-supported. 89% of the money available for current operations came from contributions from related organizations.
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

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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 80
  • Transparency & Controls: 92
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 80

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 88.9%; rating input score 89
  • Program expense ratio: 93.3%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 4.8%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.13; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.42; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 19.7%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 7.1% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.3% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -3.2% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 88.9% of revenue deployed · 93.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 14 of 14 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $368K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $78K · 15 people listed
  • Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 50/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 13/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.