Mbeya International Ministries
Legal name: Mbeya
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 271267643
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2012
- Location
- San Diego, CA, USA
- Phone
- (858) 442-6354
- Rating
- 66
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- International Development
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $231,862
- Expenses
- $228,235
- Assets
- $544,975
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Matthew Herbst (Chief Executive)
Highest reported compensation
- Matthew Herbst (Chief Executive): $90,937 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Mbeya is a non-denominational, non-profit Christian ministry that oversees a discipleship program which equips and sends out people who feel called to bring good news to hard-to-reach places.
What it reported doing in 2025
Operation and Staffing of Zola Zola Community Center in Malawi: Mbeya continued the operation and staffing of Zola Zola Community Center. We had four full-time Malawian staff living at the center. Mbeya provided school fees, meals and boarding fees for ten youths from the community. Mbeya provided six youth camping/retreats throughout the year, and provided scholarships for students unable to afford the fees. With students from the Bible College, we continued offering classes at the center and evangelism programs in the community. Youth and children's programs, such as drama clubs, choirs, dance clubs and community outreaches reached people in the thousands. Special Christmas, Easter and Mothers Day programs reached community members in the thousands.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 98% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 78
- Transparency & Controls: 51
- Accountability: 69
- Sustainability: 47
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 80.8%; rating input score 81
- Program expense ratio: 81.6%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $19.62 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 1.6%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.39; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 36.2%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.1% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -2.8% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 19.9% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 80.8% of revenue deployed · 81.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $186K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $91K · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 20 of 21 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 55/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.