Island County Master Gardeners
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 911472569
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2024–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2023
- Location
- Coupeville, WA, USA
- Rating
- 50
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Garden Club, Horticultural Program
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $27,520
- Expenses
- $25,006
- Assets
- $62,368
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Cathy Lofton-Day (President)
- Anita Merrill (Vice President)
People named in this filing
- Cathy Lofton-Day (President)
- Anita Merrill (Vice President)
- Paul Rowe (Treasurer)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Island County Master Gardener Foundations main goal is to support the WSU Master Gardener program in Island County. Volunteers conduct outreach programs sharing research-based details on sustainable gardening and environmental stewardship. Foundation funds support volunteers and ensure free programs for the public.
What it reported doing in 2025
Our outreach program is multi-facetted. Master Gardener volunteers educate individuals on growing their own food through workshops and on-site gardening at community food gardens. For example The Lords Garden in Oak Harbor yields hundreds of pounds annually for donation to local food banks. The Coupeville Community Garden has evolved into a hub of activity offering classes and contributing its produce to the community. Master Gardener volunteers operate plant clinics at various locations including the Extension Office nurseries garden centers farmers markets and hardware stores throughout Island County. This service is provided at no cost offering science-based solutions to gardening queries. Plant clinics are typically available from spring through early fall on Whidbey and Camano Islands. In the Childrens Gardening initiative volunteers introduce young gardeners to the joys of cultivating their own food. Childrens gardens at Crescent Harbor and Olympic View Elementary School educate students on the advantages of growing food. The Junior Master Gardener program educates children in grades 3 to 5 on plants and establishing successful gardens with classes offered free of charge. In Community Projects a group of Master Gardeners on Camano Island is enhancing the educational aspect of plantings along the Camano Center Trail. This trail is frequently used by seniors and students prompting volunteers to identify native plants along the trail and create detailed descriptions for each. Another team is identifying and planning the removal of noxious weeds
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 69% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and total assets are large relative to annual expenses, but may not be spendable cash. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 26
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 63
- Growth: 20
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 25.4%; rating input score 25
- Program expense ratio: 27.9%; rating input score 28
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 9.1%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.49; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -21.4% per year; rating input score 0; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -10.7% per year; rating input score 0; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 25.4% of revenue deployed · 27.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $7K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 8 of 9 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 2 filing years from 2024 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 25/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 28/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Part III transfer expenses within program total did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 59/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.