Help International

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
870683277
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2019
Forms available
Form 990 2019
Location
Provo, UT, USA
Phone
4062706216
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
International Relief

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$249,558
Expenses
$252,626
Assets
$47,642
Liabilities
$3,130

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2019. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • SUZANNE WHITEHEAD (EXECUTIVE DI): $62,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2019. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The mission of help international is to empower people to fight global poverty through sustainable, life-changing development programs. Our unique model allows college-aged volunteers, interns, and young professionals to contribute and catalyze the efforts of local partners on the ground. Help international aims to assist relatively inexperienced and mostly academically trained participants to become social entrepreneurs who understand the complexities of poverty and play an active role in efforts to improve the quality of life of some of the most vulnerable populations in the world.

What it reported doing in 2019

Help international provides participation with life-changing experience through services. Every summer help international trains college-age participants to design and implement sustainable development projects in peru, belize, uganda, tanzania, india, thailand, philippines, and fiji. Partnering with locally-based non governmental organizations (NGO), help participants create projects that promote self-reliance. As a key part of their experience, we train participants to become lifetime social entrepreneurs using innovation to solve problems. Participants receive over 20 hours of training before serving in-country, enabling them to organzie and carry out their own projects.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
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 the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 88
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 27
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92.4%; rating input score 92
  • Program expense ratio: 91.3%; rating input score 91
  • Fundraising efficiency: $18.96 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 58; 58th 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: Limited
  • 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: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1.2%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.19; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 24.5%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -3.1% per year; rating input score 0; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -10.8% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 43rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 92.4% of revenue deployed · 91.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $231K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $62K · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2010 to 2019
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 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 58/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 38/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 10/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 16/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 37/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.