Louisiana United Methodist Children and Family Services

Legal name: Louisiana United Methodist Children & Family Services Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
720435081
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
Location
Ruston, LA, US
Phone
1-318-255-5020
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Human Service Organizations
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$54,662,654
Expenses
$48,664,918
Assets
$92,875,787
Liabilities
$3,108,612

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

40 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • RICHARD WHEAT JR (PRESIDENT/CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • EDWARD LYNAM (CLINICAL DIRECTOR): $333,491 total reported compensation
  • RICHARD WHEAT JR (PRESIDENT/CEO): $265,090 total reported compensation
  • JOHN LUKE ALLEN (COO): $217,690 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Louisiana’s most comprehensive, intensive residential treatment for children. We guide children and families home to experience God’s love by following the teachings of Christ. Our Vision. Our Vision is to provide the highest quality of care to Louisiana’s children and families by offering holistic services which promote personal growth and wholesome family life. We pattern our ministry by following the example of Jesus Christ who ministers to all in order that each may experience the wholeness which accompanies the reconciling love of God. Our Commitment Louisiana United Methodist Children and Family Services exists in the community of Louisiana as a visible declaration of the Church’s belief in God and His message of reconciliation. We, therefore, have a commitment to translate that...

What it reported doing in 2025

Methodist foster care is Louisiana's largest provider of therapeutic foster care services to children in the custody of the department of children and family services (dcfs). Therapeutic foster care is a family-based service which allows children to live in a foster home with specially trained parents while receiving intensive treatment from community-based providers of mental health services for their emotional and behavioral needs. Methodist foster care operates statewide out of five regional offices located in north, central and south Louisiana. Regional methodist foster care staff members recruit, train, certify and support the foster families who provide therapeutic foster care.each year about 8,000 children enter Louisiana's foster care system after a judge determines they are unable to live with their parents for reasons of physical or sexual abuse or neglect. On any given day there are about 4,700 Louisiana children who require foster care services but has about 2,000 foster homes. Louisiana is short 100's of foster homes. Methodist foster care is working to fill the gap for the children in foster care with the most significant needs.during 2025, mfc continued growth into all regions of la with focused emphases on southeast and southwest la. Mfc continued to increase census through intentional recruitment efforts. Mfc continues developing pools of specialized therapeutic foster homes who will care for groups of children for whom dcfs finds it difficult to secure tfc services.methodist foster care continues implementing two evidence-based treatment models: trauma-based relational interventions (tbri) and the quality parenting initiative (qpi). In addition, methodist foster care is progressing steadily in building its statewide network therapeutic foster families, recruiting, training, certifying and maintaining tfc families throughout Louisiana. Mfc continues expansion by establishing additional regional offices for northwest, southwest, and southeast Louisiana. Ultimately, methodist foster care wishes to have therapeutic foster care services available to support the daily needs of 250 children.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 90% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - 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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 98
  • Sustainability: 64
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 80.5%; rating input score 80
  • Program expense ratio: 81.9%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: $3.41 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 97.4%; rating input score 97; 30th 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: 11%; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.91; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 2.1%; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8.1% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.8% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 80.5% of revenue deployed · 81.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 37 of 38 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $39.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $333K · 40 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.8M reported
  • Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 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.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 8/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 59/100.