Leaf Project Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 462626224
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2018–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2016
- Location
- Landisburg, PA, USA
- Phone
- 7172752330
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $590,530
- Expenses
- $666,776
- Assets
- $320,392
- Liabilities
- $15,514
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- HEIDI WITMER (EXECUTIVE DI): $76,080 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The leaf project connects youth to the food they eat, the land on which it grows, and to each other through engaging in farm work, culinary skill development, workshops, and community outreach through the meaningful work of building healthy, local food system. Youth are motivated to make personal and social change while increasing knowledge about and access to locally raised food in our community.
What it reported doing in 2024
The leaf project's mission is to cultivate youth leaders from diverse backgrounds through meaningful work in the food system. We do this by employing youth leaders to manage farming and food ventures while developing their unique leadership capacity. We utilize skill development criteria so youth can track their competencies in tasks like technical farming skills, culinary competencies, public speaking, etc. Mastering these skills in a progression will guide youth through their growth within leaf and the community. As youth leaders gain higher levels of skills and leadership, they share authority in building the organization and program. The purpose of creating the leaf project was to partner with our youth's untapped potential, providing an opportunity to do the meaningful work of organic and sustainable farming for the benefit of their own communities. Leaf has done exactly that over the past nine years, by hiring more than 100 youth into year-round positions managing organic farming and food ventures, working alongside regional leaders in our food system, and launching new initiatives that have fed and educated more than 20,000 individuals in our community.
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
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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 80
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 23
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 90.3%; rating input score 90
- Program expense ratio: 79.8%; rating input score 80
- Fundraising efficiency: $8.67 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 33; 33rd 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: 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 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -12.9%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.48; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 11.4%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.3% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 14.2% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 14.8% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 90.3% of revenue deployed · 79.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $532K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $76K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2018 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 33/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 14/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 32/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.