Soil Born Farm Urban Agriculture Project

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
200774693
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Rancho Cordova, CA, USA
Phone
9163639685
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Job Training

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,193,357
Expenses
$2,472,909
Assets
$3,178,120
Liabilities
$772,441

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • KURT SPATARO (PRESIDENT)
  • JANET ZELLER (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • RICHARD SHAWN HARRISON (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • JANET ZELLER (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $117,817 total reported compensation
  • RICHARD SHAWN HARRISON (CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $103,953 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to create an urban agriculture and education project that empowers youth and adults to discover and participate in a local food system that encourages healthy living, nurtures the environment and grows a sustainable community.

What it reported doing in 2024

Youth education:-providing service-based youth education & job training for pre-k through college age youth that delivers hands-on and standards-based education each year.this program has served over 120,000 youth in the last 20 years.-job training and workforce development activity through the development, management and ongoing training of young adult interns including teens, college students and California conservation corpsmembers in the areas of regenerative food production, natural ecosystems management, culinary arts, health & wellness, and delivery of nature based education.-runs a comprehensive school garden training program serving sacramento county region. Currently overseeing school garden programs at 10 best practice school sites and managing a network of training activities that support school gardens throughout sacramento county.-runs a comprehensive year-round field trip and summer camp program foryouth focused on hands-on skills building in food production, environmentalstewardship and healthy eating.-developed innovative and standards-based curriculum for all of our coreprogram components.-developed a set of youth operating and guiding principles that defines our approach to youth development.adult education:-offers a suite of 170 adult education classes covering a wide range of food production and health related activities that are offered throughout the year.-provides unique education tracks for adults including: grow your groceries(urban food production), eat the rainbow (simple and delicious cooking), wellness (whole body and mind health) and herbalism (culinary and medicinalherbs for health).- developed year-round adult volunteer, apprentice and intern programssupporting community food production and school garden programming throughoutsacramento county.-manages weekly public day focused on access to education, resources and engagement for community members.

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 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

SUPPORTED - 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: 66
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 81
  • Sustainability: 59
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 62.4%; rating input score 62
  • Program expense ratio: 81%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.52 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 7th 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: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 17th 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: 22.6%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.29; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.24; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 9%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14.1% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 62.4% of revenue deployed · 81% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $118K · 8 people listed
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
  • 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.
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 33/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 39/100.