Lowcountry Food Bank
Legal name: Lowcountry Food Bank Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 570751835
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2022
- Location
- Charleston, SC, USA
- Phone
- (843) 747-8146
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $90,109,996
- Expenses
- $88,133,424
- Assets
- $35,068,597
- Liabilities
- $1,982,591
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Nick Osborne (President & CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- Nick Osborne (President & CEO): $285,217 total reported compensation
- Brenda Shaw (CDO): $176,792 total reported compensation
- Jody Russo (COO): $166,895 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To unite our community in pursuit of equitable, dignified, and consistent access to food throughout the 10 coastal counties of South Carolina.
What it reported doing in 2024
Child and Senior Hunger-Relief Programs: Lowcountry Food Bank reaches children and seniorsthrough multiple programs. Through our BackPack Buddies program, we reached over 3,000children a week during the school year, distributing more than 80,286 BackPack Buddies bags. We partnered with 24 schools to reach students and their families through either pre-packed boxes or an onsite market, distributing over 156,928 pounds of food. Through our Kids Cafe program, we work with afterschool program partners to provide children 133,484 supper meals and/or snacks daily at 27 sites. During the summer months, we worked with summer camps to distribute over 18,089 meals to 16 sites. Our Fresh for Kids program distributed more than 31,924 pounds of fresh produce to students and their families. The seniors and veterans in our community continued to be fed through our partnerships with Meals on Wheels and other organizations reaching seniors and other homebound adults; more than 151,776 prepared meals delivered to seniors and 2,310 meals to our veterans.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 93% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 91% of its reported program spending out as grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 93
- Transparency & Controls: 81
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 93.9%; rating input score 94
- Program expense ratio: 96%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: $54.37 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90%; rating input score 90; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 89.5%; rating input score 89; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th 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: 2.2%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.4; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.2%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 11.2% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 93.9% of revenue deployed · 96% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $84.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $285K · 23 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $789K reported
- Consistency: 40 of 42 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 267 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 248 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 43/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 14/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.