Seeds of Caring
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 820639894
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2018
- Location
- Worthington, OH, USA
- Phone
- 6147535006
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Youth Development Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,106,142
- Expenses
- $1,059,570
- Assets
- $918,696
- Liabilities
- $13,236
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- BRANDY JEMCZURA (EXECUTIVE DI): $104,728 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Seeds of caring is organized to engage children and their families in service to the community. Seeds of caring offers child-centered volunteer activities to empower children to create a kinder community with their hearts, hands and minds.
What it reported doing in 2025
In 2025, seeds of caring provided 57,109 child volunteer experiences that helped children develop empathy, civic awareness, and a sense of connection to their community. Through hands-on, age-appropriate service, children learned to notice community needs, consider perspectives beyond their own, and understand that they can play a meaningful role in helping others and strengthening their communities. These early experiences are designed to build the foundation for lifelong civic engagement, healthy lifestyles, and prosocial behavior. Seeds of caring partnered with 77 nonprofit organizations to mobilize 71,683 hours of service across Ohio and Indiana, aligning youth service with real, community-identified priorities such as food insecurity, social isolation among older adults, and access to basic necessities. These partnerships ensured that childrens service was directly responsive to local needs and that partner organizations received tangible support that advanced their missions. During the year, children and families prepared 9,357 sack lunches for individuals experiencing hunger or homelessness, assembled 8,351 compassion kits with essential supplies, and created 6,775 care cards for senior citizens, among many other projects. In total, these service-learning efforts generated 168,206 in donated goods for partner organizations and community members. At the same time, participating youth strengthened social-emotional skills such as social awareness, perspective-taking, and personal responsibility- capacities that research associates with positive mental health, stronger social relationships, and long-term economic and civic benefits for communities.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 92% 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 81
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 43
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 85.3%; rating input score 85
- Program expense ratio: 88.7%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $11.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 4.2%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.87; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.9%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 34.3% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 23.7% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 23.3% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 85.3% of revenue deployed · 88.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $940K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $105K · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2019 to 2025
- 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 43/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 38/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 57/100.