Portland Parks Foundation

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
931319970
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Portland, OR, USA
Phone
5034450994
Rating
65
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Parks and Playgrounds

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$801,439
Expenses
$665,970
Assets
$2,094,523
Liabilities
$23,561

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

Leadership & pay

22 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JESSICA GREEN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • JESSICA GREEN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $113,950 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 portland parks foundation mobilizes support to improve portland's system of parks, natural areas, and public spaces. We believe in the power of these places to strengthen communities, address historic inequities, and create a sense of belonging for everyone in portland. We seek transformational change by listening to communities and rally resources and opportunities to help realize their vision. We collaborate with individuals, community groups, organizations, and institutions to develop long-term, sustainable improvements to the livability and beauty of our city. We work to create the broadest possible access to recreation, creativity, education, and play in our parks and open spaces. We help people help parks.

What it reported doing in 2024

Mobilizing parks groups and volunteers - portland parks foundation (ppf) mobilizes parks groups and volunteers through a variety of programs aimed at building capacity of organizations and new, strategic ways of operating through grantmaking, awards, workshops and special events.in 2024, ppf's small grants program supported 25 local friend groups and partner organizations promoting equitable access to parks, natural areas, community gardens and community centers ($52,000 total awarded). Continued on schedule o.ppf also celebrated volunteerism through our parks champion awards and recognized emerging leaders through our leadership award, the joey pope award for parks leadership. Both awards offer grants to the honorees organizations of choice. Grants and awards are selected by community-led review committee members who have an option to receive a stipend for the participation or direct a grant to an organization of their choice in alignment with ppf's mission. The joey pope award for parks leadership will eventually be funded through an endowment. Also in 2024, ppf continued to offer free workshops through the friends & allies summits, a twice yearly program developed to support parks groups and volunteers on relevant topics.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 73% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 83% 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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 58
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 66
  • Growth: 20

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 60.2%; rating input score 60
  • Program expense ratio: 69.1%; rating input score 69
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.14 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 25.4%; rating input score 25; 26th 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • 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: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 16.9%; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.15; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 17.1%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -29.1% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -11.4% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.5% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 60.2% of revenue deployed · 69.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $460K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $114K · 22 people listed
  • Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2019 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 filed related-organization links
  • 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: Grant itemization coverage scored 25/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 18/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.