Mission Santa Maria

What it reported doing in 2025

Mission Santa Maria is dedicated to helping impoverished, abused, and neglected Ecuadorian children receive high quality education. For over 17 years we have partnered with local organizations to create a santuary for children living in extreme poverty and vulnerability. We believe that alleviating poverty begins with faith and love and continues through education, conmbined with long-term challenge and support into professional and family life. Our programs include Esperanza Home for Children, a residential foster home; Santa Maria del Fiat, a K-12 semiprivate school, and Post High School opportunities. Our goal is that the care and holistic education children receive through these programs will lift them out of poverty and into dignified, sustainable livelihoods. All children placed in Esperanza Home for Children arrive after surviving abuse or neglect and remain there until they can safely return to their families, live with relatives, or are adopted. Children may live at Esperanza until age eighteen. The home is run by missionary sisters who have dedicated their lives to creatiing a safe, loving environment while providing daily meals, clothing, medical care, education, and emotional support. An onsite team of psychologists and social workers further support each childs healing and development. Above all, the consistent love and care provided by the sisters is the most important factor in the childrens recovery and progress. Mission Santa Maria partners with Esperanza Home to cover the full cost of education for every child living at the home, including school tuition, uniforms, and school supplies. Some children arrive having never attended school. To support their education, Mission Santa Maria provides totors and homeschooling support until they are ready to enter Santa Maria del Fiat School. We also fund additional staff and special projects to alleviate caregiver burden and ensure children receive individualized attention. Mission Santa Maria maintains an emergency food fund to guarantee that children always have access to meals and respond to urgent needs as they arise. In 2025, Mission Santa Maria expanded its support at Esperanza Home by funding school tuition, uniforms, and school supplies for 70 children. We supported six staff members serving the home, including tutors and kitchen and laundry staff to ensure childrens daily needs and educational progress were met. Mission Santa Maria continued and strenghthened its emergency food fund, which was expanded in 2024, ensuring food security for the children throughout the year. We also funded extracurricular activities for children at the home, recognizing the critical role that play, movement, and structured activities have in trauma recovery, confidence building and healthy development. Santa Maria del Fiat is a semiprivate preschool through secondary school that has served the surrounding community for 27 years and is widely regarded as one of the best schools in Santa Elena Province. The school educates over 1,200 students, some of whom travel up to 90 minutes one way by bus each day to attend. Mission Santa Maria has been a longtime partner of Santa Maria del Fiat, providing scholarships for children whose families cannot afford the $25 per month tuition. In addition to scholarships, Mission Santa Maria provides general operating support to help the school remain financially viable. As a semiprivate school, the government pays most teacher salaries but also mandates tuition limits, staffing requirements, and minimum salaries. These regulations create a structural deficit, making it impossible for the school to cover operating costs through tuition alone. Mission Santa Maria helps cover this deficit to ensure the school remains open and continues serving vulnerable families. We are also deeply invested in maintaining and improving the quality of education offered at the school. In 2025, Mission Santa Maria significantly expanded support at Santa Maria del Fiat in

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 52.9%; rating input score 53
• Program expense ratio: 72.6%; rating input score 73
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: Limited
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • 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: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 27.2%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.15; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 4.2%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 54th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 17.7% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 24.1% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings