Living Free Non-profit Animal Sanctuary

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
953628770
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-PF 2020
Location
Mountain Center, CA, USA
Phone
9516594687
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,001,286
Expenses
$1,300,862
Assets
$3,222,377
Liabilities
$89,669

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SOPHIA DEAN (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • SOPHIA DEAN (President): $60,000 total reported compensation
  • STEVEN LAKE (Treasurer): $9,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

A no kill animal sanctuary that saves and finds homes for animals facing imminent shelter euthanasia

What it reported doing in 2024

War horse creek is an immersive transition training program for veterans. It all starts with the mustangs. We rescue wild mustangs from the bureau of land management blm and bring them together with veterans in an innovative approach called collaborative horsemanship. This approach gives veterans the opportunity to master skills that often go dormant during their military tenure empathy, patience, understanding, kindness, and compassion. Once the skills are mastered with the mustangs, they will be ingrained as adaptive habits that can be transferred to family, friends and society.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 96% 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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 60
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 76
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 50.9%; rating input score 51
  • Program expense ratio: 76.3%; rating input score 76
  • Fundraising efficiency: $21.03 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 17th 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: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Fail
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 35%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.48; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.3%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 6.3% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 22.1% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14.7% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 50.9% of revenue deployed · 76.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $993K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $60K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
  • 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: Mission deployment rate scored 51/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 9 not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 51/100.