Rhythms of Grace
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 852634976
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2023–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2022, Form 990-N 2021
- Location
- Dallas Center, IA, USA
- Phone
- 5153057361
- Rating
- 88
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Health Support Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $232,802
- Expenses
- $240,974
- Assets
- $92,973
- Liabilities
- $3,255
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Dawn Carlson (Founder, CEO, Instructor)
People named in this filing
- Jacki Fultz (Chair)
- Marissa Hunter (Director / Treasurer)
- Wendy Hultman (Secretary)
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
Rhythms of Grace is a volunteer-powered nonprofit partnering with licensed therapists and specially trained horses to bring hope, healing, and belonging to children and adults with disabilities and special needs.
What it reported doing in 2025
Rhythms of Grace is recognized as an accredited member center of the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Int'l). It is one of eight PATH Int'l centers in the State of Iowa. The Founder is one of 26 PATH Int'l credentialed Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructors in the State of Iowa and one of 6 Equine Specialists in Mental Health and Learning. Adhering to the PATH Int'l industry Standards for safety, facility, programming, policies and procedures is a priority for all aspects of the organization's program services. Equine Assisted Services is an umbrella term encompassing Therapeutic Horsemanship, Equine Assisted Learning and Equine Assisted Therapy, programs which are medically recognized forms of therapeutic intervention for a number of disabilities. In 2025, Rhythms of Grace partnered with 12 special horses to offer 32 weeks of programming and 952 client hours. Clients represent children and adults with more than 35 primary diagnoses in aggregate. Volunteers provided more than 5,250 hours of volunteer time at a value of $182,647.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 70% 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.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 90
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 88
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 96.6%; rating input score 97
- Program expense ratio: 93.3%; rating input score 93
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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: 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 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.39; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 0.9% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.7% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 96.6% of revenue deployed · 93.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 5 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $225K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2023 to 2025
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 47/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 28/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 20/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 30/100.