Painter Pals
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 844070337
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2021, Form 990-N 2024
- Location
- Laguna Beach, CA, USA
- Phone
- 9164108356
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Arts Service Organizations and Activities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $63,100
- Expenses
- $60,888
- Assets
- $2,212
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
1 person listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Jovon Bray (CEO)
People named in this filing
- Jovon Bray (CEO)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Painter Pals uses creative expression as a direct response to youth mental health challenges - helping kids process stress, anxiety, trauma, and grief - while delivering free, evidence-based art programs directly into Title I schools, hospitals, and community centers, with a priority on reaching low-income and BIPOC youth.
What it reported doing in 2025
Partnerships with school districts and schools.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 93%; rating input score 93
- Program expense ratio: 96.3%; rating input score 96
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 71
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- 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: 3.5%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.04; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 64.3% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 64.3% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 93% of revenue deployed · 96.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $59K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 1 people listed
- Consistency: 12 of 12 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 8/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 55/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 58/100.