Seeds of Learning

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
841450521
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Pagosa Springs, CO, USA
Phone
9702645513
Rating
86
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Kindergarten, Preschool, Nursery School, Early Admissions

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,264,567
Expenses
$1,133,193
Assets
$3,300,963
Liabilities
$65,836

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

Leadership & pay

9 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Michelle Cusick (Fmr Executive Director)
  • Emily Martinez (Executive Director)
  • Lisa Peters (President)
  • Linda Espinosa (Vice President)

Highest reported compensation

  • Michelle Cusick (Fmr Executive Director): $49,093 total reported compensation
  • Emily Martinez (Executive Director): $28,938 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 Learning is a stand-alone, NAEYC accredited early care and education center, that serves children ages 30 months through age 5. As a community-based facility, Seeds offers parenting classes, educational opportunities for families and other early childhood professionals.

What it reported doing in 2025

In 2025 Seeds of Learning (Seeds) was open for instruction for 230 days and served an average of 58 children and families. Seeds utilized universal pre-kindergarten money to invest in teachers and parent participation, including expanding staff, hosting family nights, and collaborating with other organizations to provide high quality early childhood education, while keeping tuition costs affordable for the region. Seeds continued to offer higher wages for all teachers and 100% paid health insurance. The program was evaluated using the program administrative scale, environmental rating scale, and the classroom assessment scoring system to show continuous improvement in our interaction and environment. Our teachers made gains in professional development by taking early childhood courses at the college level. Additionally, Seeds provides two meals per day and snacks to each child to support strong minds and bodies.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 90% 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

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: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 96
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 60
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 82.7%; rating input score 83
  • Program expense ratio: 90.9%; rating input score 91
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.28 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • 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: 10.4%; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.91; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6.9%; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.9% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 6.5% per year; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 82.7% of revenue deployed · 90.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $49K · 9 people listed
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 21/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 57/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 46/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 53/100.