Project Victory Gardens

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
861512634
IRS 990 coverage
2025–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024, Form 990-N 2023
Location
Townville, SC, USA
Phone
8036793666
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$205,333
Expenses
$197,671
Assets
$30,696
Liabilities
$4,421

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Kara Rutter (President)
  • Michael Falkenbury (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Kara Rutter (President): $13,000 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Empowers military veterans beginning farmers and rural communities through agricultural education hands-on training agritourism development and community-based wellness programming. Through initiatives including Farmer Bootcamp Farms of the Brave and the Agritourism Incubator Program the organization supports veteran resilience social connection local food systems and farm viability across South Carolina.

What it reported doing in 2025

Expanded veteran-focused agricultural education and outreach programming in 2025 through the Agritourism Incubator Program AIP Farmer Bootcamp educational programming and the Palmetto Veterans in Agribusiness Outreach Fair and Symposium. Supported in part through funding from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture USDA NIFA these initiatives provided military veterans beginning farmers and rural entrepreneurs with educational workshops technical assistance networking opportunities and experiential learning focused on sustainable agriculture agritourism development business planning marketing hospitality and farm diversification. The Agritourism Incubator Program provided individualized coaching and peer-to-peer learning opportunities for participating farms across South Carolina to strengthen farm viability and increase rural economic resilience through agritourism and direct-to-consumer engagement. Farmer Bootcamp programming delivered hands-on agricultural education and training opportunities designed to support veteran transition beginning farmer success and community-based learning. The Palmetto Veterans in Agribusiness Outreach Fair and Symposium connected veterans agricultural professionals educators and community partners through educational sessions resource sharing and outreach activities focused on agricultural entrepreneurship and veteran wellness. Program expenditures included educational programming participant travel support consultant and speaker fees farm rental costs supplies subawards and outreach activities directly related to program delivery and participant support.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 98% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 98% 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 - 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: 82
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 72
  • Sustainability: 29
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 90.6%; rating input score 91
  • Program expense ratio: 94.2%; rating input score 94
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • 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: 3.7%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.16; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.6%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 33.9% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 49% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 90.6% of revenue deployed · 94.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $186K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $13K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 42 of 43 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • 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: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 10/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 44/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 19/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.