Helping Hand House
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 911275046
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Puyallup, WA, US
- Phone
- (253) 848-6096
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Homeless Shelters
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,877,490
- Expenses
- $2,855,364
- Assets
- $1,804,424
- Liabilities
- $63,791
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
7 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JENN SANKWHICH (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- JENN SANKWHICH (CEO): $165,808 total reported compensation
- BRANDON GILLEY (DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS): $120,228 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Helping Hand House provides emergency shelter and housing solutions to families in our community, ending their crisis of homelessness. We provide urgent relief with trust, dignity, respect and compassion while we help them secure their new home – helping moms, dads, and kids rekindle their hope for a better future.
What it reported doing in 2025
Hhh's permanent supportive housing program helps chronically homeless families in which a family member has a permanent disability. Unable to fully-support the entire cost of housing, the client family pays a portion of their monthly income toward rent. Additional support received is focused on enhancing the family's career potential with the goal of assisting the family to attain as much self-sufficiency as possible. In 2025, 11 families were served.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 78% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 60% of its reported program spending out as grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. 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: 95
- Transparency & Controls: 71
- Accountability: 86
- Sustainability: 31
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 95.2%; rating input score 95
- Program expense ratio: 96%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: $183.44 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 75th 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: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 0.8%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.63; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.7% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 14.1% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1.4% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 95.2% of revenue deployed · 96% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $2.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $166K · 7 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
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: 3 of 9 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 29/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 21/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 33/100.