Shoreline Community Services

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
474016591
IRS 990 coverage
2022–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2021
Location
San Diego, CA, USA
Phone
8589007024
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Homeless Centers

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$775,386
Expenses
$660,026
Assets
$538,156
Liabilities
$10,076

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

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • BURCE ENGELBERT (PRESIDENT)
  • CARYN BLANTON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • CARYN BLANTON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $93,677 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

We seek to create a thriving, safe, & welcoming neighborhood for everyone. The current focus is to address the needs of unsheltered individuals/families in the central beach area via the compass station, community care crew, volunteer outreach, & medical respite.

What it reported doing in 2025

Community care crew - launched in july 2023 to provide meaningful, transitional employment opportunities to individuals experiencing homelessness. The program helps them build job skills, gain work experience, and move toward stable housing. Crew members do street cleaning and janitorial work in the central beach area under guidance of dedicated crew coordinators. Participants receive one on one support from a dedicated case manager, focusing on skill development, goal settings, and career counseling in partnership with the san diego workforce partnership. The program follows a tiered structure allowing crew members to progress, unlock new opportunities, and access key benefits like temporary housing upon reaching their milestones. The ccc operates as a social enterprise, engaging local business, local organizations, faith communities as customers, reinforcing our model of community driven impact. In 2025, crew members worked nearly 5,000 hours, and generated $180,428 in revenue through 13 contracts. Case managers and crew coordinators worked directly with crew members for nearly 2800 hours. In 2025, we received generous grants from the county of san diego reinvestment program, the san diego county community enhancement program, and the city of san diego community projects programs and services, us bank, parker foundation. In may of 2026, our first ccc resident will move into a workforce housing community of micro sleeping cabins alongside the compass station. Crew members will take care of their own spaces, managing their own time and money, paying rent, and working.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 74% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 82% 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

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 63
  • Transparency & Controls: 94
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 51
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 61.6%; rating input score 62
  • Program expense ratio: 72.1%; rating input score 72
  • Fundraising efficiency: $13.8 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 45; 45th 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: 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: 14.9%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.82; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 14.2%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 36.9% per year; rating input score 100; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 39.2% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 40.8% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 61.6% of revenue deployed · 72.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $476K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $94K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 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 45/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 37/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 54/100.