People Helping People Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
043014567
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2018
Location
Burlington, MA, USA
Phone
7812706625
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Human Service Organizations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,182,510
Expenses
$1,226,918
Assets
$430,326
Liabilities
$22,942

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

15 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Kim Trainor (Vice President)
  • Elizabeth Trowbridge (President)
  • James Sheridan (Executive DIrector)

Highest reported compensation

  • James Sheridan (Executive DIrector): $71,350 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The mission is to help meet the basic needs of Burlington, MA's at-risk residents through sustained community-wide efforts focused on providing hunger relief, emergency financial aid, and holiday support.

What it reported doing in 2024

PHP Burlington Food Pantry: The Pantry provides supplemental food assistance on a weekly basis to help qualifying residents residents meet their nutritional needs. The pantry is set-up like a grocery store, but distribution continues to be done on a drive up basis. In total the Pantry distributed the equivalent of 370,956 pounds of food in addition to the distribution of donated Grocery Store Gift Cards totaling $8,275 (estimated at 6,600 pounds). As an alternate location to provide access to shelf stable items a Micropantry was established at the Burlington Public Library in July 2024 and accounted for approximately 5,000 ponds of food in 2025. Under the food pantry umbrella, the PHP Victory Garden is fully staffed by volunteers that produces fresh produce for pantry clients, which during the growing season accounted for approximately 2,800 pounds of food or an in kind value estimated at $5,300. Overall fresh produce accounted for 20% of the food distributed or a total of 72,371 pounds. Additionally, PHP runs a Lunch Program for kids that provides healthy food to eligible school-age children during school breaks. There were approximately 400 total visits to the lunch program in 2025. Volunteers provided almost 12,000 hours of support to our staff to ensure that the Food Pantry and Victory Garden can provide the necessary support to the Pantry Clients. Program Service Accomplishments accumulated over 2,600 visits with an average of 217 households helped during the month or an increase of 23.6%. Addition cumulative statistics include: # of Adults: 3,700; # of Children: 2,696; # of Senior: 1,113; # of New Households: 114 (including displaced families for part of the year); Pet Pantry: 2,367 pounds of food.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 91
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 79
  • Sustainability: 29
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 93.9%; rating input score 94
  • Program expense ratio: 90.5%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: $69.18 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • 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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -3.8%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.35; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.8%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 28.5% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 24.8% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 10.5% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 93.9% of revenue deployed · 90.5% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $71K · 15 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 24 of 26 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
  • 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 26/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 16/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Fund balance restriction sum did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 51/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 51/100.