Nourish Colorado

What it reported doing in 2024

Healthy food in institutions: following the passage of proposition ff in november 2022, our team entered 2023 with a clear focus: to prepare a comprehensive plan in anticipation of the upcoming request for proposals from the Colorado department of education (cde). Our goal was to position ourselves as the statewide training and technical assistance provider for the local food program (lfp). Throughout 2023, we dedicated time and resources to building a strategic response to the anticipated contract, which was expected to be released in spring 2024. However, in january 2024, we received unexpected news. Due to a significant increase in the number of students accessing free meals, funding priorities shifted. The statewide lfp contract-and all associated grants-were put on hold to ensure that every child could continue receiving meals at no cost. This development meant that not only was the statewide program paused, but additional funding for schools to purchase local food was no longer available. In june 2024, cde informed us that our existing lfp technical assistance contract would be extended for another year. This allowed us to continue supporting school districts already participating in the program. By august, 32 new districts were awarded year 4 lfp grants, and we expanded our support to include them alongside the year 3 cohort. Finally, in october 2024, our year 4 lfp ta contract with cde was officially approved, and 150,000 in funding was released. With this support, we continued our work with the 32 participating districts, ensuring they had the guidance and resources needed to successfully implement the program through september 2025.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 83.7%; rating input score 84
• Program expense ratio: 89.6%; rating input score 90
• Fundraising efficiency: $54.52 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 79; 79th 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: 88.2%; rating input score 88; 25th 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; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 6.6%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 5.3%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -10.7% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -4.8% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -17.2% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings