Orchard Africa

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
161731124
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Gilbert, AZ, USA
Phone
4809669037
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,923,413
Expenses
$1,420,035
Assets
$639,327
Liabilities
$13,521

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

Leadership & pay

6 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Michelle Tessendorf (CEO & Co-Founder Orchard: Africa)

Highest reported compensation

  • Michelle Tessendorf (CEO & Co-Founder Orchard: Africa): $100,971 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Orchard: Africa equips the local church to care for the vulnerable. The organization develops programs that include meeting daily needs of food security, sustainable small scale agriculture, health & hygiene, educational, life skills, entrepreneurial and other sustainable and on-going projects with community involvement. Church leaders and churches in the developing world are empowered to implement these programs in order to respond to poverty and injustice and their outworking in local communities.

What it reported doing in 2025

MINISTRY PROGRAM: Orchard: Africa believes that the Church is the primary channel through which to respond to poverty and injustice in Africa. Through the Ministry Program, Orchard: Africa empowers African church leaders with skills that enable them to provide emotional, physical, social and spiritual care to he vulnerable in a community. The Ministry Program provides church leaders with tools (programs) to actively lead and care for their community and to restore hope through their churches. In conjunction with this, Western church leaders are empowered to respond in sustainable ways to the needs of the church in Africa. During 2024, Orchard: Africa provided 43,241 training hours and equipped 432 Pastors and Ministry leaders who serve in vulnerable communities.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 57% for direct work, and 43% for grants.
  • 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. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 76
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 55
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 67.9%; rating input score 68
  • Program expense ratio: 92%; rating input score 92
  • Fundraising efficiency: $35.54 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 99.7%; rating input score 100; 54th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • 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: 26.2%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.45; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 7.1%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 10.3% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.4% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 2.1% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 67.9% of revenue deployed · 92% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $101K · 6 people listed
  • Consistency: 41 of 42 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 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: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.