Santa Cruz Community Credit Union
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 942407726
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Santa Cruz, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8314257708
- Rating confidence
- Limited
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $11,837,669
- Expenses
- $13,037,602
- Assets
- $176,019,950
- Liabilities
- $158,489,442
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
19 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- ELIZABETH CARR (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- ELIZABETH CARR (CEO): $735,524 total reported compensation
- SYLVIA O SANCHEZ (CFO): $276,514 total reported compensation
- KATIE FAIRBAIRN (CAO/EVP): $245,122 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
A cooperative, organized for the purpose of promoting thrift and savings among its members, creating a source of credit for them at rates of interest set by the board of directors, and providing an opportunity for them to use and control their own money on a democratic basis in order to improve their economic and social conditions. As a cooperative, santa cruz community credit union conducts its business for the mutual benefit and general welfare of its members with the earnings, savings, benefits, or services of the credit union being distributed to its members as patrons. Santa cruz community credit union serves the community as a certified cdfi and low income credit union, ensuring that through economic justice measures, all people receive assistance to improve their lives.
What it reported doing in 2025
The credit union is a community development, low-income and juntos avanzamos certified credit union providing low-cost, life-changing services, financial learning and opportunities to its local communities with a mission to embrace economic justice and to provide financial access to all people. The credit union is a state-chartered credit union serving santa cruz, monterey, and san benito counties as their approved field of membership.scccu serves people and businesses in all walks of life and provides a variety of opportunities to minority populations including consumer, real estate and commercial/small and micro-business lending. Specifically, the credit union offers "proyecto hogar" - manufactured home loans, new and used auto loans, minority business loans, lines of credit, platinum visa and savings-secured visa, commercial loans, real estate loans and home equity loans and lines of credit.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 94% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.
The verdict
- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
- Transparency & Controls: 65
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: Limited
- Program expense ratio: Limited
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 21.8%; rating input score 22; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -10.1%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 13.5; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.9; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 18.1%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
- Governance: 6 of 6 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments
- Leadership: top reported pay $736K · 19 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $386K reported
- Consistency: 12 of 13 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes grants and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 13 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 22/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 6/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 7/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 8/100.
- Review — Grant Readiness: California registration: this organization could not be resolved against the register, so the check is unfinished.