KidZ at Heart International
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 050554275
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2016–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Mesa, AZ, United States
- Phone
- (877) 778-KIDZ (5439)
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Christianity
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $891,463
- Expenses
- $949,135
- Assets
- $1,702,115
- Liabilities
- $1,836,644
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Becky McAllister (Chief Executive Officer)
Highest reported compensation
- Becky McAllister (Chief Executive Officer): $90,000 total reported compensation
- Kathleen Kochis (Chief Operating Officer): $72,500 total reported compensation
- Reni John (Chief Resources Officer): $45,591 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
We walk alongside adults in spiritual formation and equip them to guide children into a personal faith that endures. Thank you for walking with us. Your prayers, partnership, and belief in this mission help us carry the hope of Christ to the rising generation and beyond. **_Together, we’ll keep shaping lifelong faith that transforms hearts, homes, and communities around the world._ With hope, Becky McAllister. Kathy and her husband, Rick, joined our KidZ Community in 2018 when they were invited to facilitate a KidZ at Heart training in Ukraine - and from that point on they were hooked! Continuing as facilitators throughout 2019 and into 2020, Kathy felt God calling her out of retirement, toward a deeper connection with Kidz at Heart, joining KidZ staff in 2020 as a Special Project Coordinator in the Training Resources division. But God was not stopping there! With a background in...
What it reported doing in 2025
KidZ at Heart International avoids the unintended consequences that result from well-intentioned international children's programs by equipping local leaders to work with the children of their own communities using the resources readily available to them. By doing this, we avoid creating dependency on western resources, we leave local leaders with skills they can continue using and reproduce in others, and we lift up those most likely to impact children - the families and church leaders who love them and live with them daily. The unique KidZ at Heart training plan has been used to train children's ministry workers in over 50 countries, including the U.S. and is called Transforming KidZ Ministry Training. In 2025, our national training networks conducted training in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Guyana, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Sudan, Egypt, Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand, and Nepal. Over 3200 participants attending the training around the world with 95 completing all 8 modules of our Transforming KidZ Ministry Training and over 72 completing our Great Trainer Summit.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 91% 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 92
- Sustainability: 28
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 89.1%; rating input score 89
- Program expense ratio: 83.7%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: $20.18 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 18th 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: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -6.5%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.79; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.08; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 21.9%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.2% per year; rating input score 100; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 30.3% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 89.1% of revenue deployed · 83.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 6 of 7 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $795K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $90K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 30 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2016 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 56/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 17/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 3/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.